Scientist Grew Mini Human Guts Inside Mice
Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard have successfully grown mini human guts inside mice. This important and groundbreaking research encourages the study of diseases of the human gut that can otherwise not be studied in humans.
The Details:
- What was done: Scientists implanted 3-D printed scaffolds made up of proteins into mice. Using this scaffold, the researchers were able to enhance the growth of human stem cells and create a mini human gut inside of the mice.
- Significance of this process: The process will enable scientists to study diseases of the human gut that were otherwise not possible to study. A model of an “injured” human gut, for example, could be created and studied.
- Key Conclusions of the research:
- The process of creating the mini human guts was successful.
- The scale of the mini human gut and the complexity of its cells is comparable to that seen in the human gut.
- The mini human guts lasted for several months in the mice.
Next Steps:
This research is an important step towards developing a better understanding of human diseases based on the gut. The researchers plan to further test the mini human guts in order to better understand how the cells interact and how they respond to injury or disease.
The importance of this research cannot be overstated. Not only will it increase our understanding of diseases of the gut, but it may also lead to new treatments and better outcomes for patients with gut-related diseases. Scientists have recently made a breakthrough discovery that could potentially revolutionize medicine by allowing the creation of mini human organs outside of the body.
In an experiment conducted at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., scientists were able to develop human intestinal linings inside of mice. To do this, the mice were injected with human stem cells, which were then converted into functional human intestinal tissue.
This potentially ground-breaking breakthrough could have a huge impact on medicine in the future. It could allow for the generation of human organs without the need for a donor, thus eliminating the need for long and often unsuccessful organ donation waiting lists. Additionally, the generation of mini human organs for testing in the lab could be vital for the development of new treatments for diseases such as cancer or diabetes.
Furthermore, by creating mini human organs, it could potentially be used as a way of testing potential new treatments, since the organ would be composed of fully functioning human cells. Currently, animal testing is still widely used in order to gauge the efficacy of new drugs, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult due to ethical and practical constraints.
The study is still in the early stages and has only been tested in mice, so it will likely take some time before the process is adapted for use in humans. If the team of scientists is successful, then this could open up a whole new realm of possibilities in medicine and science.