World's first BIOLIMB created: Dead arm 'brought back to life'

06-03-2015 • http://www.dailymail.co.uk

The research was carried out by the Massachusetts General Hospital. Researchers stripped a dead arm of all of its cells. They then injected it with blood vessels and muscle cells (shown). The limb came back to life and was re-attached to a rat, which was able to use the new limb.

Hands, arms and even legs, can be transplanted, but the operations are complex and patients have to take powerful immunosuppressant drugs - which weaken the immune system to prevent the rejection of a transplant - for life.

In contrast, a lab-grown arm or leg should look and move more naturally.

And because it is made out of the person's own cells, no immunosuppression would be needed.

Dr Ott, who has previously made kidneys, livers, lungs and even beating hearts in the lab, began by taking a forearm from a dead rat.

He then washed it in detergent to stop its cells, leaving only a framework behind.

The frame was then placed in an incubator-type jar, injected with healthy blood vessel and muscle cells, and fed nutrients and oxygen.

In just two to three weeks, the blood vessels and muscles had rebuilt, this week's New Scientist reports.

When the limb was attached to a living rat, blood quickly flowed through it.

The creature was even able to flex its new paw.