Researchers have created the world’s first biological replacement limb, grown in a lab from the creature’s own cells.

Dr Harald Ott of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Surgery has grown the replacement forelimb for a rat, using the forelimb of another rat that had previously died as a template for the cellular structure to grow over. The donor limb was treated with a detergent solution to stop it’s cells, then was injected with healthy muscle and blood vessel cells from the recipient rat, and given the necessary oxygen and other nutrients to enable it to grow. Within three weeks, the new limb was ready for transplant.
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