Christopher Lord

I had no idea we are <a href="http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,4529276%255E661,00.html" target="_blank">this</a> far along in growing organs!

Remarkable!

hopefully the pace continues.

Totalitarianist

I just thought of something very disgusting they might do with this new technology.

They might do it to. They'd make a lot of money... I'm just not quite sure I should mention it here.

Corwin

I've been passing around the link at work... (there's a post about this on slashdot...)
Wow. Just.... wow.

Mageth

Cool.

Nitpicky, but I thought the thymus was a lymphoid gland, and not an "organ."

Corwin

The difference is largely semantic I think. It's complex, it's human tissue, and it functions well enough that they could implant it into someone.

Mageth

From an online medical dictionary (emphasis mine):

Organ - 2. &lt;biology&gt; A natural part or structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole; as, the heart, lungs, etc, are organs of animals; the root, stem, foliage, etc, are organs of plants.

Gland - &lt;anatomy&gt; Organ specialised for secretion by the infolding of an epithelial sheet.

So I reckon glands may be classified as a specific type of relatively simple "organ." I do think "growing organs" may give a bit of a false impression. Upon seeing the topic title, I thought at first someone had grown a heart or a lung. I'll be a lot more impressed when (and if) they can generate a heart or a lung from stem cells.

Corwin

Based on what they've done so far there's no reason to suspect that they can't do exactly that.

Mageth

I certainly hope that stem cell research leads to the ability to grow hearts, lungs, etc. independently of cloning the entire individual. They're already growing heart cells.

While I think it's possible, I do have some reservations as to whether we will be able to. Hearts, lungs, kidneys etc. are a lot more complex and integrated with the rest of the body than the thymus gland.

Corwin

True, but the same principle applies. Remember that these are stem cells we're talking about here. All this technology really does is induce stem cells, (I assume already partially differentiated) to do what they do natrually. This is the best kind of medicine... instead of fighting the body, you're working with it.

Even with just the thymus, this could be amazingly cool. I mean, even if it takes us a while to grow complete complex organs, there are a hell of a lot of glandular disorders that are hellishly debilitating.... (hypo/hyperthyroidism, aspects of diabetes, etc.)

Coragyps

You'uns best not be a growin' any of them organs from no stem cells here in th' Yew Ess of A! That sounds like clonin' around these parts, and our Prezzident 'n' Congress don't want no part of that immoral babykillin' commie bizniss!

&lt;redneck republican accent off&gt;