How long until we can grow viable tissues & organs in labs using stem cells?

[evolution12]

How many years- approxiametly- do you think it will take before we can grow viable tissues & organs in labs, using stem cells and other things? thirty years? fifty? one hundred?

 

[mishrashubham]

Stem cell research though gradually gaining momentum, is facing many challenges today.
Right now we have two types of stem cells to work with: 1. Embryonic stem cells and 2. Induced Pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).


As the name suggests, embryonic stem cells are obtained from human embryos. Stem cells are those cells which have not differentiated and hence hold the potential to transform into any type of cell. As you must be knowing, the fusion between an egg cell and a sperm cell starts the process of the creation of a human being. The fused egg cell, which is called the zygote, undergoes rapid cell division and forms a big mass of cells called blastocyst. And it is at this point that stem cells are removed for research and thus requires the removal of the embryo.

Induced pluripotent stem cells, as the named suggests, are adult somatic cells which are converted into pluripotent cells (cells which can differentiatie) by forced expression of certain genes.

The main problem with iPSCs is that they are difficult to obtain (as the technology involved is very new; not even half a decade old) and hence are researched upon only in extremely specialised laboratories. Therefore most of the current research goes is done on ESCs. This again creates ethical issues. Check this

This is now the main barrier in stem cell research. Once we find a way to efficiently and economically produce iPSCs, this barrier will be lifted. So right now it is difficult to say when we will reach a state of technological advancement such that we produce entire human organs; though it won't be in near future.

 

[evolution12]

when you say it won't be in the near future;
do you mean it won't be within the next 30 years? 50 years?

 

[Evo]

You might be interested in this thread.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=467772

 

[Pythagorean]

How about printing organs with an HP printer?

http://www.hpprintercartridges.co.uk/blog/printers-used-to-print-cells-skin-and-organs/

 

[mishrashubham]

You might be interested in this thread.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=467772

Nice articles Evo and Pythagorean.

May be Ryan would have something interesting to say as he is studying regenerative medicine.

 

[evolution12]

when will he log on/see this?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

when will he log on/see this?

Now! In my opinion over the next century or so we will get better and better at regenerating organs (either in vivo or in vitro). Already there have been some great successes at creating decellularised extra cellular matrixes, seeding a patients cells on them and transplanting it back into the patient. Dr Martin Birchall recently did just that with a http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1003/10031903.

As mishrashubham said IPS cells are an exciting new avenue of research, current problems include the low efficacy of converting somatic cells to IPS cells as well as potential issues with oncogenesis. However recent advances in reprogramming techniques by Kaji et al show great promise for reliably creating IPS cells in high numbers at low risk. Indeed recently I was at a conference where a professor from the University of Nottingham (unfortunately his name escapes me so for now I don't have a link) gave a presentation showing a large automated machine that his lab has built designed to produce IPS cell cultures 24/7. Somatic cells get put into one end and over the course of weeks the machine monitors hundreds of flasks at once at various time points before giving out what should be IPS cells at the end. At the moment it has great problems with efficacy and isn't actually being used yet to culture IPS cells (they're experimenting with primary and mulipotent cells atm) but it's an amazing glimpse at what might be. Another professor gave a presentation on the idea of creating customisable cell culture mediums that contain the necessary factors to program a specific cell type to another specific type.

To reliably create tissues and organs we are going to have to radically improve our knowledge of how cells respond to the various characteristics of their environment (such as ECM formation, substrate stiffness, ph, o2 concentration etc etc). As time goes on we will hopefully be able to make more sophisticated tissue engineering scaffolds that can either be seeded with the patients cells and grown into a fully formed tissue in vitro (for transplant) or placed directly into the patient to grow tissue in situ.

Timespans are notoriously hard to predict in science but if I had to bet I would say that we won't look back in the future and point to the year these technologies came out. Rather bit by bit the technology will be developed for specific treatments until eventually we have a full toolkit able to deal with pretty much any condition. Already we've seen things like the trachea example but skin treatments such as Dermagraft and http://www.eurosurgical.co.uk/matriderm.asp[/URL] or bone treatments using http://www.novabone.com/NB/index.html are already entering the market. Personally I'm hoping that by the time I'm old age (not for at least 40-50 years thankfully) the majority of organs will be made to order, but that's more a wish than a prediction.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that as well as the two types of stem cells mishrashubham mentioned we also have adult stem cells. They aren't pluripotent but being able to take multipotent stem cells from a patient, quickly process them and then use them for treatment would be brilliant. There are many advantages; there is a good available source, it would be cheaper than IPScs, more ethical than ECs and potentially quicker to develop into treatments than other techniques.

 

[mishrashubham]

Great info Ryan

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Great info Ryan

Thank you I'd be worried if I couldn't contribute!

 

[evolution12]

are you saying you don't think tissues will be made to order, or anything like that, for 40-50 years?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

are you saying you don't think tissues will be made to order, or anything like that, for 40-50 years?

No I'm saying that will not be one specific time when we can suddenly "make to order" everything. We've already done it for some tissues (trachea/skin) and as time goes on we will develop better technologies until eventually we can make any and all tissues to order.

So in answer to the question "When will we be able to make any and all tissues to order" I'm going to have to answer I don't know and I don't know if we ever will. My opinion is that I would be surprised if we didn't have the technology to grow all tissues/organs by the end of the century but that is pure speculation (albeit based on knowledge of the field).

 

[evolution12]

Why can't dermagraft be used for any skin wounds & flaws?
http://www.dermagraft.com/about/overview/

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Why can't dermagraft be used for any skin wounds & flaws?
http://www.dermagraft.com/about/overview/

What wounds do you have in mind?

Dermagraft is a monoculture (one cell-type only) treatment and is only used to assist in the re-epithelialization of wounds. Dermagraft can only work on skin wounds where only the dermis is damaged (i.e it will not help if there are exposed tendons, muscles, bone etc). It works by having a culture of fibroblasts on it that release factors to encourage and assist re-epithelialization. It is only used as a treatment for DFU because diabetics display impaired wound healing, it wouldn't be required in patients who were not diabetic as they can naturally do what the dermagraft provides. If you want to read the http://issuu.com/advancedbiohealing/docs/maine-part-a-nhic-article-1110 on the dermagraph website that you may be interested in.

For worse types of damage such as burns dermagraft wouldn't work (it only works through the factors that the fibroblasts seeded on it release) however something like http://www.eurosurgical.co.uk/matriderm.asp ? A beautiful young woman who was the victim of an acid attack that burned most of her face away. Matriderm was used in her treatment with quite some success.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Well as I've said predictions of science are pretty sketchy. I would say near future is 20 years, I know the technologies and research in the field now and I know that it takes 10 years to take something from bench to bedside. I'm pretty certain that even in 20 years there will be few routine regenerative medicine (exceptions to this could be skin, ears, noses etc).

The problem is that the technology to grow a myocardial tissue may have absolutely no application to growing skeletal muscle. Having said that for all I know I may receive a paper on my desk tomorrow showing some research that changes all that. I'm sticking to my "over the century" figure just because it seems sensible baring any game-changing breakthroughs or show-stopping discoveries.

 

[Ken Natton]

I don’t know what lies behind the obsession some contributors to this thread seem to have with the time scales, as if these things could ever be so predictable. What you have talked about here Ryan goes beyond the fascinating, this is the kind of stuff that leaves me with my jaw on the floor. What you have presented Ryan is a wonderful insight into the current state of the research and where it is going, and that is as much as anyone can reasonably expect.

I’m not sure if it is the right thing to take the discussion in the direction of the philosophical implications of these technologies – it is another thing that does seem to meet sensitivities that are not necessarily based on any rational objections. But when you mention that young woman who had treatment for appalling facial injuries it does raise in my mind the possibility of the day coming when perfectly healthy people undergo plastic surgery in accordance with whatever ideas happen to be the current notion of ‘beauty’. A time when facial looks will be as much a matter of fashion as the clothes we wear. If it is a nightmare vision, it should be clear that it would not be the fault of the science that developed the technologies, but of the society that so misused it. Perhaps the more serious question will be, if we ever reach a stage when pretty much the entire population can expect to live long and active lives of universal good health, what effect will that have on population pressures that are already problematic without the technologies required to produce such a circumstance.

In any case, thanks Ryan, among the most deeply fascinating posts I’ve read on a website that contains many such posts.

 

[ViewsofMars]

How many years- approxiametly- do you think it will take before we can grow viable tissues & organs in labs, using stem cells and other things? thirty years? fifty? one hundred?

Dealing with the OP's comments! The internationally known peer-reviewed journal Nature had a news feature on May 18, 2011 entitled Stem cells: The growing pains of pluripotency. I suggest those interested read it. http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110518/full/473272a.html

You'll find some added information about stem cells here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-10/chb-chb101802.php

There is a great informative "Conference Video" on Regenerative Medicine: 2012 from the New Yorker-- "May 7, 2007 Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, talks about his latest achievements in growing new human cells, tissues, and organs. From “2012: Stories from the Near Future,” the 2007 New Yorker Conference":
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/atala#ixzz1NOLoiPY7[/URL]

 

[Evo]

Please do not make off topic posts, let's return to the topic.