Growing Life from the Dead

Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the results of a team of US scientists’ stem cell research have created a pitter-patter* of excitement among the medical community.

[They] used a process called decellularization to wash away existing cells from the hearts of dead rats while leaving the basic collagen structure intact.

They injected this gelatin-like scaffold with heart cells from newborn rats, fed them a nutrient-rich solution and left them in the lab to grow.

Four days later, the hearts started to contract.
…
Eight days later, the hearts started to pump.
You’re goddamn right; they brought a heart back from the dead. The process is already used to create small amounts of heart tissue and blood vessels. A whole heart seemed like the logical next step.

At some point in the future, the researchers hope that this method will be used to create new, healthy organs from the stripped organ “scaffolds” of pigs or human cadavers. Using cells from the recipient’s own body in order to reduce the rate of rejection, they could craft a new organ and transplant it instead of waiting for a suitable donor.

Go ahead and hurry up on that, guys.

* Bad pun: accomplished.

punk does have a slight fear of rat zombies.

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