TEXAS — A study published in Science Translational Medicine describes how scientists have successfully transplanted a bioengineered lung into a pig.<br /><br />Scientists created lung scaffolds by taking a lung from another pig and bathing it in a solution of sugar and protein.<br /><br />This leaves a skeleton of the lungs, stripping it of all the blood and living cells.<br /><br />The lung scaffolds are then treated with growth factor-filled hydrogels and nanoparticles which would prepare it to receive cells from the pig where the lung was going to be transplanted to.<br /><br />The cells were left in the lung scaffolds for 30 days where it prepared a brand new lung.<br /><br />The researchers noticed the pigs which received the bioengineered lung managed to grow blood vessel networks by two weeks.<br /><br />Researchers involved in the project said the same process could be used for human transplants five to ten years from now.<br /><br />This successful operation means organ donor shortages could become a thing of the past.
