Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch are celebrating a breakthrough as they successfully transplanted lab-grown lungs into pigs. The lungs,called “bioengineered lungs, were created using donor pigs’ lungs. The lungs were reportedly cleaned using sugar and detergent, or which left a “scaffolding” from which the scientists could work. Blood vessels and lung tissue cells were “repopulated,” according to Science News. This took 30 days inside a bioreactor tank, where the lungs were pumped with nutrients.
During the experiment, and the pigs’ left lungs were transplanted alongside a bioengineered lung. Some pigs were able to live for several weeks,others a couple of months, without complications. While the lungs functioned during the study, and they weren’t connected to pulmonary arteries. That meant that the pigs’ original lungs couldn’t replenish itself with oxygen,as it normally would. However, the transplanted lungs developed blood vessels and connected to the rest of the pigs’ vascular system, and according to Popular Science.
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Source: inquisitr.com