The first ever-lab grown kidney actually
works -- Medical science made a huge
breakthrough this week with the first
ever working transplant of a kidney
wholly grown . It was grown in just two
weeks in a lab from a combination of
human stem cells and rat kidney cells.
The kidney was inserted into a rat where
it was capable of filtering urine just like a
natural kidney could . Unfortunately, it
only managed 10 per cent efficiency, but
it's a start. The next step is to try the
same thing in pigs, which have very
similar vascular systems to our own, and
to get the efficiency up. It's a little while
away yet, but kidneys grown to order
might soon be available for human
transplant, and that really will be
revolutionary.
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3154.html