This Bioengineered Rat Kidney Could Pave The Way For On-Demand Replacement Organs
Kidney Now This is a previously decellularized rat kidney after it was reseeded with endothelial cells, used to repopulate the organ's vascular system, and with neonatal kidney cells. Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative MedicineThe big news in bioengineering this week is all about a tiny pool of rat pee. Your kidneys may be the hardest body parts to duplicate, but maybe doctors just need a template to fill out. Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have built a functional engineered rat kidney, washed clean of its former cells and re-seeded with fresh ones, and transplanted it into a live rat. The engineered kidney can produce urine and expel it through a ureter, and it didn't produce any blood clots. The fact that it actually worked--it produced urine--is a major breakthrough for tissue engineering, which faces probably its greatest challenge with the all-important kidney. The team also washed out a human and a...