RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

By Deborah Condon

Scientists have taken a major step towards being able to ‘grow’ human lungs for the purpose of transplantation.

A team at the Imperial College in London managed to successfully convert human embryonic stem cells into lung cells. According to the team, it ‘directed’ the stem cells to convert into the type of cells needed for gas exchange in the lungs.

This involved taking the stem cells and growing them in Petri dishes in the laboratory, in a specialised system that encouraged them to change into the cells that line the part of the lung where oxygen is absorbed and carbon dioxide is excreted.

“Although it will be some years before we are able to build actual human lungs for transplantation, this is a major step towards deriving cells that could be used to repair damaged lungs”, said Dr Anne Bishop of the Imperial College.

While the scientists used embryonic stem cells for their research, they are planning to test whether stem cells from other sources, such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, achieve similar results.

Details of this research are published in the journal, Tissue Engineering.

Stem cells are basic cells that can multiply and generate into specialised cells, tissues and in some cases, organs. Stem cells derived from human embryos can develop into virtually any other cell made by the human body, unlike adult stem cells. This is why they are of such interest to scientists.

However some people, such as pro-life groups, are opposed to this type of research, as they view it as the destruction of embryos.