Again, are ye a man or mouse?
Dec. 24th, 2002 02:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheScientists Grow Human Kidneys in Mice
Israeli scientists said on Monday they had successfully grown human kidneys in mice, in a breakthrough that might one day help save thousands of patients waiting for transplants.
The researchers, led by Dr. Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science, said they had transplanted stem cells from human and pig fetuses into mice.
The kidneys grew into functional mouse-sized organs, filtering the blood and producing urine, they reported in Nature Medicine journal.
Donating organs from one species to another, a field known as xenotransplantation, has long been held back because the human immune system often recognizes the animal organ as foreign and rejects it.
In this case there was no dangerous immune reaction, possibly because the transplanted cells had not yet developed their own identity badge.
Israeli scientists said on Monday they had successfully grown human kidneys in mice, in a breakthrough that might one day help save thousands of patients waiting for transplants.
The researchers, led by Dr. Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science, said they had transplanted stem cells from human and pig fetuses into mice.
The kidneys grew into functional mouse-sized organs, filtering the blood and producing urine, they reported in Nature Medicine journal.
Donating organs from one species to another, a field known as xenotransplantation, has long been held back because the human immune system often recognizes the animal organ as foreign and rejects it.
In this case there was no dangerous immune reaction, possibly because the transplanted cells had not yet developed their own identity badge.