"The Body Shop" A Review By Kandace!!!

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The article "The Body Shop," discusses the processes that scientists are now going through to grow or make replacement body parts for the human body. About 15 years ago Joseph Vacanti and Bob Langer created a new process of growing human tissues in a lab. With the contributions of Vacanti's brother and other researchers, throughout the country, they all hope to be able to make replacement organs for the many people in this world that need them.
     Skin is the largest organ in the human body, and it is no surprise that skin is the first "neo-organ" to be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Many burn victims and patients with skin sores or ulcers have skin that it nearly dead and is unable to function properly to protect their body. That is where this new skin plays a major roll. This skin is able to aid both, burn victims and skin sores or ulcers. It is a hope among many that within the next couple of years, scientists will be able to produce, lab-grown cartilage and bone. Although we have the technology to do these experiments "neo-organs," are not the simplest things to grow or create.
     In order to grow tissues properly in a lab, scientist have had to literally mimic the physical environment in which cells grow naturally. Vacanti and Langer together created a scaffold on which cells can be planted or seeded. The scaffold they produced consists of biodegradable materials that are long stringy strands that attach together. The purpose of this scaffolding is to properly provide cells with a better access to waste removal and nutrients. Also these scaffoldings can be molded into many different shapes and sizes which can produce a custom grown tissue.
     Overall this was actually a very interesting subject to learn about, and I would have never thought that we would have the ability to grow human tissues in a lab. Let alone be engineering tissue that will ultimately help thousands of people throughout our world, whether it be a small or large impact this is truly an advancement in human technology!!!
    
     This picture took me by surprise because it just happens to be a real human ear growing on the back of a lab mouse. After reading this entry I was shocked on how the mouses body was able to handle the human tissue without its immune system failing to support it. However after reading further I found that this particular mouse was bred to lack an immune system so that throughout this process it would not reject the human tissue.