How Close Are We To Farm Human Parts?

Right now, scientists are attempting to grow ears , kidneys, blood vessels,livers,even hearts . In fact , there are some people right now walking around with lab grown bladders. But this is rare. In U.S over 80% of transplanted parts come from the deceased. The rest are donated by the living - except for the number that are grown in laboratories. However this could all change fairly soon. In a not too distant future you may have a spare heart, kidney or liver grown for you in a lab. and some day there could be warehouses filled with new organs.
So how close are we to farm body parts.

Hey this is AQUASH , an Engineering student , for you with this facts filled series of science . follow if you like and share.
Last year there was a record number of organs transplanted in U.S. Over 30,000 transplants in 2016. Which does sound like it is a lot but the waiting list is over 100 thousand. There are not enough organs to go around.
"In 20 years , the actual number of patients on transplant list has increased by six folds (600%). So there is dire need of donated organs" said ANTHONY ATALA ( DIRECTOR , WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE)
At a moment, main way to get an organ is from the donor, but what if we could just could cook up our own from the scratch?
" We have placed lab grown organs in Patients already, we have number of tissues implanted in patients and the goal is to increase the number of patients that get benefits from this technology." said Dr. Atala
And DR. ATALA knows he lead the team that developed first lab-grown organ to be transplanted in human body in 2006.It was a Bladder which is quit simpler than other organs.

But what about organs that are more complex.
" Each of them actually, the ones that look simple , have their unique challenge to them " said TODD McDEVITT , Senior investigator at Gladstone Institute.
"There are some things that are harder to make than others . For Example , there is a level of complexity in tissues to make with flat structure such as skin being the least complex. They are flat mostly one major cell type. Tubular structures like blood vessels have second level of complexity.Hollow non tubular organs like stomach , bladder , have third level of complexity. And by far the most complex are the solid organs like the kidney , the lung , the heart" Dr. ATALA
As they get more complex in terms of number of cells involved and the structure features, the complexity of those. THe brain is certainly the most complex . Now there are scientists who are working on growing Brain in the lab, but so far they have only produced miniature, a partially functioning brain of the size of popcorn . But these are grown to implant into humans.

So, How are scientists doing all this , well growing cells comes down to the stem cells. Stem cells are the basics of all cells, they are like children and can grow up to the any thing.
To grow a tissue or a organ , the very first challenge is to how to get the cells grow. The PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS has the potential of the earliest stage , to turn into heart ,liver and lung . Not just the tissue but all the cell type , the Heart muscle cell type, the blood vessel cells - all those necessary tissues that you need to make a complex organ.
Our old friend ,the stem cells are very powerful. it is already been used to grow things like skin and tracheas.

"One thing we are interested in is using the power of stem cells to try and grow or coax the cells to make tissues, largely on their own" TODD McDEVITT.
But we want to know of growing a complete organ , or we say, entire farm of organs and this is were a things get a little crazy. Right now scientists are using 3-D printers to create organs. They make biocompatible plastic scaffold, stem cells are produced onto it and they pop that whole thing into an incubator that mimics the conditions of human body.
"Through 3-D printers we are really trying to make different types of tissues. We use, basically,your typical, imaging software that is available at every major hospital were you can configure what organs look like in 3_D. And then make our own software that can download the information and then using X-Ray , to make such delicate parts to fit defected patients" Dr. ATALA.
While we can print simple structures , solid organs are more complex. Engineers need to figure out how to connect blood vessels and tissues within the same organ.

Which ain't easy.
"The most difficult organ to create are solid organs. But in future we can really create and put in in human body successfully" Dr. ATALA
Then we have to cross another obstacle.

Even if we make such organs, how can we produce them in a large scale and farm them?
How can we meet the demand of thousands and thousands of patients. It is the process that could take decades.
"So realistically speaking , i think that widespread manufacturing And availability of large organs in a lab , we are still along ways" TODD McDEVITT
" about the solid organs it is still going to take a while. in case of flat tissue organs we are already there and we are putting them into patients" Dr. Atala
So, we have to come a long way. But seeing row upon row of hearts , livers, and kidneys being grown and delivered to you via drone . That is still the stuff of Sci-fi for sure.
So take care of that liver, or don't , who am i , your Dad?
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