Despite improving prosthetic technology, people who have lost a limb still face limitations. One alternative to prosthetic limbs would be limb transplant; however, this can lead to a prolonged high risk of immune rejection, which can make life even harder. Now researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have been able to circumnavigate this issue by growing limbs by using an individual’s own cells rather than a transplant from a donor. Limbs involve a complex system of muscles, bones, vessels and nerves and in order for them to develop and grow properly; they need a supporting structure called a matrix.
In order to establish this, the researchers stripped away cells from the forelimbs of dead rats, but preserved the vascular and neural matrix. The researchers then repopulated these with progenitor cells and allowed them to grow and develop in a bioreactor. The limb was removed from the reactor after two weeks and tested for functionality. Electrical stimulation of the muscles in the limb caused the muscles to contract appropriately and once the limb was transplanted in another rat blood started to immediately flow into the new limb. This is a great step towards artificially growing limbs and using them for transplants. The researchers are now focusing on trying to ensure that neural connections are correctly made between the nerves of the limb and of the recipient organism.
Article summary courtesy by Waleed Khan
References:
Engineered composite tissue as a bioartificial limb graft, Harald C. Ott et al., Biomaterials, doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.04.051, published online 2 June 2015