Japanese Researchers: Possible Key Step Made in Bioengineered Transplantation

Tokyo, Researchers in Japan said they have confirmed blood perfusion in bioengineered lungs transplanted into mice. They said the lungs were made using human cells. Assistant Professor Suzuki Takaya at the Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer of Tohoku University, and other researchers, said that they removed all cells from mouse lungs. Collagen fibers and basement membrane, however, were maintained. The group said they then injected human cells into these scaffolds to create lungs, including blood vessels, and transplanted the bioengineered organs into other mice, according to Japan's broadcaster NHK World. Suzuki said the architecture of mammalian lungs is basically consistent across species, including mice, swine and humans. He believes the new platform is an important step toward conducting research using swine and other large animals to transplant bioengineered lungs into humans. The researchers said engineering complex organs, such as lungs, remains a major challenge. They said the mouse-scal e lung bioengineering platform developed in their study could facilitate a scale-up to larger, human-scale organ bioengineering in the future. Source: Qatar News Agency