Lab-Grown Lungs
Biomedical engineers have built many types of human organs in the lab, but, until recently, they've lagged on lung tissue. Two studies last year demonstrated very different approaches to the process. One research team has grown an artificial lung from harvested rat lung tissue and successfully implanted the new lung into a live rat.
According to Nature.com, "the study provides proof of principle that such regenerated tissue may one day be used to treat patients with serious lung disorders." Another research team has created a different kind of lab-built lung, called lung-on-a-chip, that mimics a living, breathing human lung on a microchip. The device, made using human lung and blood vessel cells, acts similar to a lung in a human body and is intended to be used as an in vitro model system for testing drugs or the toxic effects of a variety of substances without the use of animal models. Both lab-grown versions of lungs could one day serve as a way to sidestep animal testing and organ transplantation.
Researchers successfully grew a rat lung in a laboratory.
A rat lung today, a human one tomorrow
see more info on A rat lung today, a human one tomorrow
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/sep/01/rat-lung-today-human-one-tomorrow/
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