Wednesday, 8 October 2014

HEALTH: Laboratory-Grown Penises Ready to be Tested on Humans

They could be new hope to men with genital abnormalities or injuries in as little as five years. 

Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have successfully engineered Laboratory-Grown Penises which are ready to be tested on humans.

As the world leaders in regenerative medicine, they’ve achieved some remarkable things in the past. In 1999, they became the first in the world to successfully implant a lab-grown organ into humans—a bladder. Since then, they’ve transplanted engineered vaginas into women born with defects or without vaginas entirely. a

Anthony Atala-Team leader began this genital journey since 1992, but it was not until 2008 that the scientists proved transplanting engineered penises was theoretically possible. Having spent a considerable amount of time working out the best way to engineer these tricky organs, the team managed to grow 12 functioning penises for rabbit subjects.

After grafting them on to the recipients, all tried to mate with a female, eight successfully ejaculated, and four produced offspring. While these results were certainly encouraging, gaining approval for human trials is another kettle of fish. However, Atala is confident that it could be granted by the FDA within five years if they can prove the technique is safe.

So how do they do it? They first obtain a donor penis and strip all the cells from it with a detergent. The researchers are then left with a collagen scaffold which they then seed with a combination of cultivated smooth muscle and endothelial cells from the recipient. Using the patient’s own cells eliminates the risk of immunological rejection that often occurs when transplants are given from another individual.
However, because the cells are taken from the male’s genitals, it means that the procedure could not be used for female-to-male sex reassignment surgery.

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