Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute
for Regenerative Medicine could be offering new hope to men with genital
abnormalities or injuries in as little as five years, thanks to one of
their many tissue engineering endeavours: lab-grown penises.
While that may sound a little far-out,
these guys are among the world leaders in regenerative medicine and
they’ve achieved some remarkable things in the past. Back in 1999, they
became the first in the world to successfully implant a lab-grown organ
into humans—a bladder. Since then, they’ve transplanted engineered
vaginas into
women born with defects or without vaginas entirely, and
have started working on growing tissues and organs for more than 30
different areas of the body.
Team leader Anthony Atala began this
genital journey back in 1992, but it was not until 2008 that the
scientists proved transplanting engineered penises was theoretically
possible. Having spent a considerable amount of time working out the
best way to engineer these tricky organs, the team managed to grow 12
functioning penises for rabbit subjects.
After grafting them on to the recipients,
all tried to mate with a female, eight successfully ejaculated, and
four produced offspring. While these results were certainly encouraging,
gaining approval for human trials is another kettle of fish. However,
Atala is confident that it could be granted by the FDA within five years
if they can prove the technique is safe.
So how do they do it? They first obtain a
donor penis and strip all the cells from it with a detergent. The
researchers are then left with a collagen scaffold which they then seed
with a combination of cultivated smooth muscle and endothelial cells
from the recipient. Using the patient’s own cells eliminates the risk of
immunological rejection that often occurs when transplants are given
from another individual.
However, because the cells are taken from
the male’s genitals, it means that the procedure could not be used for
female-to-male sex reassignment surgery.
—iflscience.com
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