Lois at the other rehab was a biologist working for several drug companies before her bad diagnosis. Whenever I am prescribed a new drug, I ask her about it. I have learned terms like receptors and pathways. As a person who has never understood science, she has given me the information in a way that I can understand their function. She is brilliant.
On Friday, she gave me two articles, which appeared in the July 30, 2010 Science Magazine: “Reconstructing the Lung” and “Tissue-Engineered Lungs for in Vivo Implantation.”
One was very technical and very difficult for me to totally understand while the other was like a recap. In essence: There has been a successful tissue-engineering of seeding autologous cells in rats. It was an in vivo process to regenerate cells to reconstruct function in the lungs.
The more technical article begins, “Lung diseases account for some 400,000 deaths annually in the United States. Human lungs do not generally repair or regenerate beyond the microscopic, cellular level. Currently, the only way to replace lung tissue is to perform lung transplantation, which is an expensive procedure that achieves only 10 -20% survival at 10 years and one that is hampered by a severe shortage of donor organs. Recently, techniques have been developed to quantitatively decellularize complex organs such as heart, liver, and kidneys. Acelluar matrices can provide attractive scaffolds for repopulation with lung-specific cells for lung engineering…”
In the future, a patient can be supported with artificial lungs while the cells are “grown” then transplanted back into their lungs. There would be no need for anti-rejection drugs as the cells are from the patient. Therefore, the prognosis and quality of life are so much better for lung patients.
To quote the article, "Lung tissue was successfully regenerated that mimicked native tissue in appearance and would facilitate gas exchange in vitro and when grafted to rodents.” Yahoo!
But, as the article states, there are countless problems to overcome. Deciding which cell sources to take from the patient, having a good blood-gas barrier and how to test if it is working well in the patient are still just a few stumbling blocks. There are many more.
So, it is a beginning. There is a long road ahead. We have to stay healthy and live as long as we can as science begins to make advancements towards the repair of damaged lungs.
The articles are available for a fee on line or you may find them at your local library. There are found in the 30 July 2010 Vol. 329 Science Magazine Pages 520 and 538.
Here is a summary of one of the articles:http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/329/5991/520
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