Cautiously hopeful

[Crow]

Scientists have grown a beating heart. And it didn't involve embryonic stem cells!

They stripped the cells from a rat heart, leaving nothing but the collagen matrix. They then placed cells from newborn rats on the collagen frame, supplied the necessary conditions and nutrients, and grew a heart.

Maybe someday this will lead to harvesting the cells of a human who needs a heart transplant to grow a replacement that his body is less likely to reject. Might even work for other organs.

This would this be a lifesaver for people who need replacement organs and endure long waits for transplants and often die before they get one.

And I'm always happy when I think of the prospect of one less use for dead babies.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_18555.aspx (http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_18555.aspx)

[Rayado]

Amen and amen.

[RumTumTugger]

Wonderful new, since it shows how unnecessary the morally bankrupt embryonic Stem cell research is. One more nail on the so called "Pro-Choice" side's coffin.

[Lizard]

:woot:

[Crow]

It kinda makes me laugh how the article talks about the use of pig hearts as a matrix for growning replacement hearts for humans is a thing where religious objections have to be overcome.

Even if I wholly believed that using pig organs in humans was religiously prohibited, I think that God would rather that I offend Him by using parts from an unclean animal than from slaughtered innocent unborn human babies.

(and I don't for one instant think that God cares about pig hearts when saving a human life is in the balance.)

[mossrose]

It would be religiously prohibited by the Jewish and Muslim religions, and maybe some eastern mystery ones as well......Hindi, perhaps.

But, then, that would be the individual person's choice, I would think, to take a heart or other organ in this manner, or to die.

[Crow]

I've seen on other sites that it could be used with cadaver hearts, which makes sense.

One reason that the organ transplant donor pool is so inadequate is that the organ must be taken from a person who is brain dead but who still has circulation because heart muscle and nerve cells rapidly die.

If you're just using the collagen as a physical matrix to grow a heart upon, I think that could greatly increase the number of cadaver human hearts that could be used for transplantation. And it would mean that more hearts could be available because a donor who had an arrest wouldn't necessarily have poor collagen to build upon.

[mossrose]

It's a wonderful advance. I hope the speed of perfecting the technology will catch up soon with the need for organs.

[JonLanceBarker]

:b_woot: :woohoo:

[Brandalf85]

Excellent news. :brandalf:

[RumTumTugger]

It kinda makes me laugh how the article talks about the use of pig hearts as a matrix for growning replacement hearts for humans is a thing where religious objections have to be overcome.

Even if I wholly believed that using pig organs in humans was religiously prohibited, I think that God would rather that I offend Him by using parts from an unclean animal than from slaughtered innocent unborn human babies.

(and I don't for one instant think that God cares about pig hearts when saving a human life is in the balance.)

I agree Crow. anything that saves the most vulnerable human beings among us should be applauded and supported.

[Teallaura]

Muslims maybe but since the collegen would eventually be replaced I'm thinking orthodox Jews would have less of a problem with it.

Besides, with the need for donor organs diminished the few people with legitimate objections would be much more likely to get a donor heart - still win-win.