k wrote:
] ] A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer
] ] has enjoyed his first meal in nine years %u2014 a
] ] bratwurst sandwich %u2014 after surgeons grew a new jaw
] ] bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth
] ] in what experts call an "ambitious" experiment.
] ]
] ] According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical
] ] journal, the German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth
] ] chemical and the patient's own bone marrow, containing
] ] stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that fit exactly
] ] into the gap left by the cancer surgery.
] ]
] ] Tests have not been done yet to verify whether the bone
] ] was created by the blank-slate stem cells and it is too
] ] early to tell whether the jaw will function normally in
] ] the long term. But the operation is the first published
] ] report of a whole bone being engineered and incubated
] ] inside a patient's body and transplanted.
] ]
] ] Stem cells are the master cells of the body that go on to
] ] become every tissue in the body. They are a hot area of
] ] research with scientists trying to find ways to prompt
] ] them to make desired tissues, and perhaps organs.
]
] Unreal! -LB

Very cool.......

RE: Time for a sandwich: Doctors use man's back to make jaw