US scientists have successfully transplanted bioengineered lungs into a pig, with plans to do the same with humans in between five and ten years, thereby reducing the waiting list for lung transplants. The new technique is based on an existing method of growing human lungs, which involves taking stem cells from pigs that are genetically identical to those used by researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. It is hoped the process could repair damaged lungs, enabling them to be used in transplants. The scientists aim to use the technique to treat babies born without lungs by using a biopsy from the mother, or stem cells from the baby.
US scientists have successfully transplanted bioengineered lungs into a pig, with plans to do the same with humans in between five and ten years, thereby reducing the waiting list for lung transplants. The lungs and working blood vessels were grown in a laboratory, using separate pig lungs to provide the protein scaffold and the cells to cover it. It is hoped the process could repair damaged lungs, enabling them to be used in transplants. The scientists aim to use the technique to treat babies born without lungs by using a biopsy from the mother, or stem cells from the baby.