A breakthrough by British scientists have raised hopes of a futuristic new treatment in which patients could grow their own functional organs from scratch, BBC News reported. The findings, published in Nature Cell Biology on Saturday, could pave the way to alternatives to organ transplantation.
A group of T-cells developed into a thymus, a small organ near the heart which is central to the workings of the immune system, and functioned in the same way of fighting infection as one found in any healthy adult mouse. Conducted and transplanted in mice, the research raises the prospect of a future solution to kidney problems, liver failure and heart defects.
Experts have managed to create cells which, once injected into the body, can grow into a fully functioning organ, UK MailOnline reported. But although the research was promising, It might be another ten years before such a treatment is shown to be effective and safe enough for human patients,
Scientists at the Medical Research Council center for regenerative medicine at the University of Edinburgh started with cells from a mouse embryo. "These cells were genetically 'reprogrammed' and started to transform into a type of cell found in the thymus. These were mixed with other support-role cells and placed inside mice," according to BBC News.
"Once inside, the bunch of cells developed into a functional thymus." Structurally it contained the two main regions, the cortex and medulla.
Professor Clare Blackburn at the University of Edinburgh, who led the research, said it was "tremendously exciting" when the team realized what they had achieved. "This was a complete surprise to us, that we were really being able to generate a fully functional and fully organized organ starting with reprogrammed cells in really a very straightforward way."
"This is a very exciting advance and it's also very tantalizing in terms of the wider field of regenerative medicine," she said.
Crucially, the researchers found that the artificial thymus could produce the T-cells, raising hope for the one in 4,000 babies born each year without a functioning thymus. "Growing replacement parts for damaged tissue could remove the need to transplant whole organs from one person to another, which has many drawbacks - not least a critical lack of donors," Dr. Rob Buckle, Head of Regenerative Medicine at the Medical Research Council, which funded the study, said.
"This research is an exciting early step towards that goal, and a convincing demonstration of the potential power of direct reprogramming technology, by which once cell type is converted to another. However, much more work will be needed before this process can be reproduced in the lab environment, and in a safe and tightly controlled way suitable for use in humans."
Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research, added, "This appears to be an excellent study combining several approaches, each of which has been known to work in other systems. This is an important achievement both for demonstrating how to make an organ, albeit a relatively simple one, and because of the critical role of the thymus in developing a proper functioning immune system."
