] 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 |