Tissue engineers grow penis in the lab
New Scientist, 11 September 02
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992781
In a remarkable feat of tissue engineering, major parts of the penises of several rabbits have been replaced with segments grown in a lab from their own cells. The animals were able to use the reconstructed organs to mate.
The next step is to try to recreate the entire organ from scratch. The technique could make it possible to reconstruct the penises of men who have suffered injuries or those of children born with genital abnormalities.
"If you have a child born with ambiguous genitalia, it's a life-changing event," says Anthony Atala of Harvard Medical School, whose team carried out the work.
It could also provide an alternative to the crude methods currently used to enlarge the organ, such as injecting fat cells or cutting the penis's suspensory ligament and "pulling out" more of the internal part. Instead, a patient would have penile cells removed by a doctor and, a few weeks later, the organ or parts of it grown using the cells could be surgically implanted.
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[rhinoceros]
In the SiliconValley newsletter, it was reported in a rather ambiguous way:
Quote:
"The engineers were apparently able to replace the major parts of the penises of several rabbits with segments grown from their own cells."
---- This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=26556>
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