About the episode
Growing mini organs made from our own cells in the lab is not new, but researchers have now grown some from cells in the womb that come from the fetus.
This will hopefully allow them to say more about problems in the development of babies during pregnancy. The lung cells, kidney cells and intestinal cells with which the mini-organs are made come from the mother’s amniotic fluid. During a routine check, researchers discovered that it contained not only dead rejected cells from the fetus, but also a few living ones. To their surprise, they managed to grow these cells in the lab.
About 3 to 6 percent of babies worldwide are born with malformations of or in the body. And because the mini-organs can be grown in the lab long before birth, the researchers hope that this will enable better diagnosis and treatment.
To test this, the researchers also used the cells to create mini lungs with a congenital defect, namely an opening in the diaphragm. They were then able to successfully test the effect of a treatment on the mini-organs. The hope is that this should be possible for many more deviations.
Read more about the research here: Scientists grow ‘mini-organs’ from cells shed by foetuses in womb
2024-03-09 10:01:28
#Mini #organs #cells #amniotic #fluid
