] 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

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