LONDON (AP) — In a north London hospital, scientists are
growing noses, ears and blood vessels in a bold attempt to make body
parts in the laboratory.
It’s far from the only lab in the world
that is pursuing the futuristic idea of growing organs for transplant.
But the London work was showcased Tuesday as Mayor Boris Johnson
announced a plan to attract more labs to do cutting-edge health and
science research in the area.
While only a handful of patients
have received the British lab-made organs so far— including tear ducts,
blood vessels and windpipes — researchers hope they will soon be able to
transplant more types of body parts into patients, including what would
be the world’s first nose made partly from stem cells.
"It’s like
making a cake," said Alexander Seifalian at University College London,
the scientist leading the effort. "We just use a different kind of
oven."
British authorities have invested nearly 4 million pounds
($6.7 million) in the plan to stimulate research in the
London-Oxford-Cambridge area. It aims to attract companies to the area
to foster collaboration and promote research and manufacturing. A major
center for biological research will open in London next year.
University
College London is a partner in the campaign. During a recent visit to
his lab there, Seifalian showed off a sophisticated machine used to make
molds from a polymer material for various organs.
Last year, he
and his team used that material to mold a nose for a British man who
lost his to cancer. Then they added a salt and sugar solution to the
mold to mimic the somewhat sponge-like texture of a natural nose. Stem
cells were taken from the patient’s fat and grown in the lab for two
weeks before being used to cover the nose scaffold. Later, the nose was
implanted into the man’s forearm so that skin would grow to cover it.
Seifalian
said he and his team are waiting for approval from regulatory
authorities to transfer the nose onto the patient’s face but couldn’t
say when that might happen.
The polymer material Seifalian uses
for his organ scaffolds has been patented and he’s also applied for
patents for their blood vessels, tear ducts and windpipes. He and his
team are creating other organs including coronary arteries and ears.
Later this year, a trial is scheduled to start in India and London to
test lab-made ears for people born without them.
"Ears are harder
to make than noses because you have to get all the contours right and
the skin is pulled tight so you see its entire structure," said Dr.
Michelle Griffin, a plastic surgeon who has made dozens of ears and
noses in Seifalian’s lab.
"At the moment, children who need new
ears have to go through a really invasive procedure involving taking
cartilage from their ribs," Griffin said. She added they plan to
eventually create an entirely synthetic face but must first prove their
polymer scaffolds won’t accidentally burst out of the skin.
"Scientists
have to get things like noses and ears right before we can move onto
something like a kidney, lungs or a liver, which is much more
complicated," said Eileen Gentleman, a stem cell expert at King’s
College London, who is not involved in Seifalian’s research. "What
(Seifalian) has created is the correct structure and the fact that it’s
good enough for his patients to have a functional (windpipe), tear duct,
etc. is pretty amazing," she said.
Some scientists predicted certain lab-made organs will soon cease to be experimental.
"I’m
convinced engineered organs are going to be on the market soon," said
Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson, a professor of transplantation biology at
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She has transferred lab-made
blood vessels into a handful of patients and plans to offer them more
widely by 2016, pending regulatory approval.
Seifalian hopes lab-made organs will one day be available for a few hundred dollars.
"If
people are not that fussy, we could manufacture different sizes of
noses so the surgeon could choose a size and tailor it for patients
before implanting it," he said. "People think your nose is very
individual and personal but this is something that we could mass produce
like in a factory one day."
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