The Iron Ring

I can’t believe this piece of news eluded me for over a week! Man grows his own new jaw in his abdomen. Reminded me of a piece I wrote in The Scientist about some research being done at Vanderbilt. Researchers there grew bone inside the body of rabbits. This makes me wonder if bone is the only type of tissue that can be grown this way. Bladders can be grown from human cells but those cells must be removed and the bladders grown in the lab.

But which way is easier? For the body itself to act as an incubator there must be room for whatever type of tissue or organ you are trying to grow. But it would mean no titrating of media or reagents to determine the best concoction for growing tissue. A lab must be extremely sterile and delicate tissue would require careful observation. Might be easier to just implant a scaffold and let nature do the work. But it would also mean an extra procedure to harvest out the tissue/organ.