Two years ago, Doris Taylor created a beating animal heart in her laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Now, two years later, the University moves Taylor’s research efforts forward with the announcement of the execution of an exclusive, global license agreement with Miromatrix Medical, Inc., a company founded by Taylor. According to the University’s media release, “the technology licensed to Miromatrix holds the promise of one day enabling the replacement of entire human organs with non-transplantable organs, harvested from either animals or donors, which are stripped of their cells and recellularized with cells from the recipient or compatible donor cells.”
Recellularization may eventually allow an end-stage renal disease patient—like me—to “grow” a replacement kidney (or two), using cadaveric organs from donor animals or humans as a basic infrastructure upon which my own cells can combine to create a matching organ. The advantage of using one’s own cells for a replacement organ cannot be understated; since the organ is grown from the patient’s own cells the chance of rejection is greatly reduced as is the necessity of ongoing immunosuppressive drugs.
Taylor’s recellurization process, which she says can be done “with virtually any organ,” uses detergents passed through the organ’s blood vessels to strip away cells from the source organ until only a nonliving infrastructure remains. The infrastructure is then repopulated with appropriate cells from the recipient (or a compatible donor). The structure and integrity of the source organ’s blood vessels are retained during the stripping process and a solution of oxygen and nutrients are then passed through these vessels. Because the recipient’s cells are used to repopulate the source infrastructure an immune response is not triggered.
University of Minnesota’s Great Conversations: Innovative Science; Doris Taylor and Patricia Simmons 14 April 2009:
