Live real lungs! Not donor organs that people have been waiting for for years, but specially grown in the laboratory. Such a breakthrough in science was made by scientists from the University of Galveston in Texas. The researchers admitted that they had been working on a discovery that would save millions of lives for many years, and now it finally happened.
New lungs were grown using parts of damaged organs. The doctors took lungs that, for some reason, were not suitable for transplantation. Unnecessary cells were removed from them, leaving only the "skeleton", which served as a basis.
To this "skeleton" were added the necessary cells and tissues from other lungs (which were also not suitable for transplantation, but retained living cells). And so a new organ was assembled. Then the lung was placed in a container with a special liquid (at first a simple aquarium served for this), where the lung grew and was filled with nutrients.
Scientists proudly demonstrated to TV channels how a new grown lung successfully passes air through itself - inhales and exhales.
In the photo, the lungs are completely white. Scientists explained this by the fact that the organ is devoid of cells and there is no blood in it. Until! But very soon, an amazing discovery will solve the problem of the lack of donors and save many lives. Now the most important thing for doctors is to figure out how to ensure that the lung takes root in the human body.
“Actually, we grew a lung in the laboratory a year ago,” admits the team leader, Dr. Joan Nichols. “But we were in no hurry to announce our discovery. It took us a year to confirm through many experiments that we really did everything right. This is a serious matter, and there is no need to rush to boast.
Now that lungs are being confidently grown in the laboratory, scientists are planning to test new organ transplants in pigs. And this will happen in the next two years.
“It may take another 12 years before we decide to transplant these lungs into a human,” says Dr. Nichols. - But it's so great! One could read about such discoveries in science fiction books, but we turned science fiction into a scientific fact!
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