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SCIENCE NEWS
Lab-grown penis helps rabbits mate ... like rabbits
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Posted 2009/11/09 at 6:08 pm EST
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 (Reuters) — Researchers have engineered artificial penises in rabbits, using cells from the animals, who then used their new organs to father baby rabbits.
The work takes scientists closer to making other complex solid organs such as livers using a patient's own cells, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
It provides a tailor-made transplant, said Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who led the study.
"Once the tissue is there, the body recognizes the tissue as its own," Atala said in a telephone interview.
Atala focused on the penis because he is a pediatric urologist, who has specialized for years in disorders and congenital defects of the bladder and sexual organs.
"That was the inspiration for this work. We are seeing babies born with deficient genitalia all the time. There are no good options," Atala said.
He is also a specialist in regenerative medicine, which uses the body's own cells to repair damage. In this case, Atala's team used ordinary cells, not the stem cells often used in such research.
Companies such as Geron and privately held Advanced Cell Technology have business models based on such technology.
>
Lab-grown penis helps rabbits mate ... like rabbits
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Posted 2009/11/09 at 6:08 pm EST
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 (Reuters) — Researchers have engineered artificial penises in rabbits, using cells from the animals, who then used their new organs to father baby rabbits.
The work takes scientists closer to making other complex solid organs such as livers using a patient's own cells, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
It provides a tailor-made transplant, said Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who led the study.
"Once the tissue is there, the body recognizes the tissue as its own," Atala said in a telephone interview.
Atala focused on the penis because he is a pediatric urologist, who has specialized for years in disorders and congenital defects of the bladder and sexual organs.
"That was the inspiration for this work. We are seeing babies born with deficient genitalia all the time. There are no good options," Atala said.
He is also a specialist in regenerative medicine, which uses the body's own cells to repair damage. In this case, Atala's team used ordinary cells, not the stem cells often used in such research.
Companies such as Geron and privately held Advanced Cell Technology have business models based on such technology.
>
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