Breathtaking! The artificial lungs for human transplants made of tobacco

Scientists are developing artificial lungs for human transplants — using, of all things, tobacco.

The unlikely material is modified to produce a synthetic form of collagen, the fibrous substance that makes up the ‘scaffolding’ of many major organs. The researchers have found a way to genetically modify tobacco plants to produce large quantities of collagen almost identical to the body’s own.

This is turned into a type of ‘ink’ and loaded into a 3D printer, which produces man-made lungs by building up layer after layer of the replica collagen. The lungs are then seeded with the patient’s own stem cells (extracted from skin samples), to develop them into healthy lung tissue suitable for transplant.

The scientists hope the technique — which is still at a very early stage — could be used to mass-produce artificial lungs so patients needing transplants no longer have to wait the months, or even years, it can take to get a suitable donor organ.

It could mean that the very plant that has caused millions of deaths through smoking-related diseases can instead be used to save lives.

Tobacco, it turns out, is the ideal vehicle for growing collagen as the plant matures quickly — in just eight weeks. So there is a constant supply for making artificial lungs.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6506165/Breathtaking-artificial-lungs-human-transplants-tobacco.html

I hope this works out it will be a wonderful thing if it does, and maybe lead to growing other organs.