How to grow your own intestine

For the first time an almost-complete complex human organ has been grown from stem cells.

This may lead to growing replacement tissues within the patient and avoiding the need for organ transplants.

Here's how it works:

1

Human skin and blood cells are engineered into a type of embryonic-like stem cells called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. They are bathed in growth factors to trigger their conversion to intestinal cells.

2

A small amounts of iPS cells are put into the kidney capsule of a mouse, where they are fed by the blood supply and then grow into a much larger ball of cells.

3

The matured cells turn into all of the major tissue types found in a fully-developed human intestine, apart from the nerve cells that control the constriction of the gut muscle.

Source: Nature

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