LIFESCIENCE: Artificial fingers created using cow cells

[Eduardo Kac <ekac@artic.edu>]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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Artificial fingers created using cow cells

NEW YORK, Jun 29 (Reuters Health) -- Artificial human-like fingers,
including joints, can be grown in mice using cow cells and biodegradable
polymers, report an international team of researchers.

Three types of cow cells -- cells that make bone, cartilage, and tendons --
placed on
biodegradable polymer 'scaffolds' grow into tissue ``in the shape and
dimensions of human
phalanges (fingers),'' according to plastic surgeons who presented their
findings Monday at
the 12th Congress of the International Confederation for Plastic,
Reconstructive and
Aesthetic Surgery in San Francisco.

Dr. Noritaka Isogai and colleagues of Kinki University Hospital in Osaka,
Japan,
collaborated with researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston,
Massachusetts. The
team report that the technique resulted in new composite tissues 20 weeks
after the cow
cell-seeded polymer matrices were implanted into a special breed of mice.

Analysis of the new tissues under a microscope showed the presence of
mature articular
cartilage, such as that found in joints, and bone in structures ``as
intricate as human
(fingers) and joints,'' the investigators note.

They conclude that ``the formation of (fingers) and small joints is
possible with selective
placement of (cells)... into a biodegradable polymer scaffold.''

______________________________________________________________________

Eduardo Kac
Assistant Professor of Art and Technology
Art and Technology Department
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
112 S. Michigan Avenue, Room 414
Chicago IL 60603
Phone: (312) 345-3567
Fax: (312) 345-3565
E-mail: ekac@artic.edu

http://www.ekac.org

______________________________________________________________________

Research Fellow
Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts,
University of Wales, Newport, UK
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