Laughing Boy 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 This is stupid. You put this up now? It was on google last night, asshole! Tell me something I don't already fucking know! RE: Time for a sandwich: Doctors use man's back to make jaw |