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Title: Penis tissue replaced in the lab
Source:
BBC
URL Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8347008.stm
Published: Nov 9, 2009
Author: Not attributed
Post Date: 2009-11-09 22:43:40 by farmfriend
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Keywords: None
Views: 88
Comments: 6
Tissue created in a laboratory has been used to completely replace the erectile tissue of the penis in animals. The advance raises hopes of being able to restore full function to human penises that have been damaged by injury or disease. Rabbits given the engineered tissue by the scientists from Wake Forest University in New Carolina had normal sexual function and produced offspring. The study appears online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Anthony Atala said: "Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction. "Our hope is that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future." Reconstructing damaged or diseased penile erectile tissue is a tough challenge because of the tissue's complex structure and function. Different approaches have been tried - including the use of silicone prosthesis - but with limited success. The Wake Forest team has already achieved considerable success in the field of tissue engineering, developing whole human bladders that have been implanted into patients. In a previous study, the researchers engineered short segments of rabbit erectile tissue with 50% of full function. In the latest work, they harvested smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells from the animals' erectile tissue. These cells were multiplied in the laboratory and used to seed a three dimensional scaffold, which was implanted into the animals' penis. Organised erectile tissue with blood vessel structures began to form as early as a month later. The researchers believe the key was the fact that the cells were injected into the scaffolds on two separate days, enabling them to hold almost six times as many smooth muscle cells as in previous studies. During an erection, it is the relaxation of smooth muscle tissue that allows an influx of blood into the penis. The relaxation is triggered by the release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells. Tests showed that vessel pressure within the engineered tissue was normal and that blood flowed smoothly through it and drained away from it normally after an erection. When the animals with the engineered tissue mated with females, vaginal swabs contained sperm in eight out of 12 cases. Four of the 12 females were impregnated. Tim Terry, honorary secretary of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, described the study as "fascinating". He said complex, highly invasive surgery was often the only option for patients with damaged erectile tissue and the latest work offered long-term hope of a better alternative. However, he said, much work would be required before the technique could be tested on humans, with potential problems including finding a suitable place to embed the new tissue and ensuring it had an appropriate nerve supply. "Nevertheless, tissue engineering techniques may well lead to clinical advances with time," he said.
Penis tissue replaced in the lab
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#1. To: farmfriend (#0)
No official comment here...
Somewhere, Sir Short Shank is smiling.
Poor bunnies, not just the ones who got it chopped then grown back, but what about the ones who never got theirs back and had to endure all sorts of painful procedures? Really, there's got to be a better way.
This is great news for cops everywhere.
This would probably be used more for cosmetic enhancement than repair, if it became a common technique. ------- As if the viagra commercials weren't enough.
hahahahaha !
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#2. To: farmfriend (#0)
#3. To: farmfriend (#0)
Rabbits given the engineered tissue by the scientists from Wake Forest University in New Carolina had normal sexual function and produced offspring.
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#4. To: farmfriend (#0)
#5. To: farmfriend (#0)
Imagine the TV ads. Men, do you have a short winky? Come see Doctor Richard Dickenson. It's not just a new winky, it's a new you."
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-Carl Sagan.
#6. To: Armadillo (#5)
"Greenhouse gases do not act as a blanket around the earth and they do not keep the atmosphere warm. ... greenhouse gases emit more radiation than they absorb and this ongoing radiation loss tends to cool the atmosphere at between 1C and 2C per day, a fact known for more than 50 years. And yet we continue to get the simplistic explanation that greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere and so more greenhouse gases will warm the atmosphere more. No wonder the public is taken in!" --William Kininmonth, meteorologist , 1791
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