Who is Vacanti mouse? with a human ear growing on his back
In the twentieth century, our world saw rapid technological advancement in animal tissue engineering. During this time, scientists attempted to grow human body parts externally and replace them like broken machine parts. Despite the fact that these scientific hypotheses have been argued for decades, no one expected it to happen. When all of the news sources posted the snapshot you see above in 1997, the globe was taken aback. That is because of the ethical implications of such experiments. After looking at the picture above, some were thrilled, while others were terrified. Not only that, a backlash of protests against tissue engineering started in the western world.
Even though plastic surgery advanced significantly in the latter half of the twentieth century, the human ear remained the most difficult portion of the human body to reconstruct due to the cartilage it is constructed of. Although cartilage could be manufactured, making it out of human tissue was extremely difficult, so many people who had accidents involving their ears would have to live with a shapeless ear or no ear for the rest of their lives.
You might have assumed the mouse was genetically modified, or that it was disfigured, or that it was the consequence of mad scientists. MIT engineer Bob Langer and Harvard surgeons Joseph and Charles Vacanti experimented with strategies to produce human body parts in the lab 25 years ago. In order to better understand how they could assist humans to grow body parts, they implanted the shape of a human ear in the back of a mouse. Their findings were published in 1997. Following the broadcast of a BBC documentary about tissue engineering, the world was introduced to the strange animal known as the Vacanti Mouse. Whatever the result, the mouse continues to be a symbol of the power of science in the public imagination.
The mouse which was used in this experiment was referred to as a “Nude Mouse” since it lacked hair. This occurred due to a random mutation that left this species without hair and without an immune system. First, they developed synthetic ear cartilage. The synthetic ear cartilage was designed to mimic the ear of a 3-year-old child, and once implanted, the child’s ear would continue to develop as the youngster grew. The synthetic ear cartilage was surgically implanted on the back of a mouse and left for 12 weeks to fully grow with living cells. The lack of an immune system was what distinguished this mouse and made it ideal for the experiment. Therefore, the sculpted cartilage could be filled with cells until it fully developed into a human ear because it lacked an immune system to combat the foreign tissue. After injecting stem cells into the mould, the stem cells created human ear-shaped cartilage, which gradually disintegrated over time. The entire procedure took around two months, and scientists were able to implant a human ear into the rear of the Vacanti Mouse.
But, as you all know now the world is moving towards the bioprinting technique. Bioprinting is a technique for creating cellular structures using bioinks including stem cells. The biomaterial is applied layer by layer to produce skin, tissue, or even an organ. Human livers, kidneys, and hearts are being bioprinted at laboratories and research institutes. The goal is to make them transplantable as well as to reduce the number of organ donations. In this way, there are some incredible bioprinting initiatives that I’d want to write about in my upcoming article. The heart, corneas, ovaries, ear, and skin are all bioprinted.
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