Tiny Human Stomachs Grown in Lab
by Laura Geggel,
They may be small, but new lab-grown miniature human stomachs could one day help researchers better understand how the stomach develops, as well as the diseases that can strike it.
Using human stem cells and a series of chemical switches, researchers grew stomachs measuring 0.1 inches (3 millimeters) in diameter, in lab dishes, according to a report published today (Oct. 29) in the journal Nature.
"It was really remarkable to us how much it looked like a stomach," said researcher Jim Wells, a professor of developmental biology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Growing a miniature stomach had its hurdles. There isn't much information on how the human stomach forms during embryonic development, so the researchers had to rely on basic research as well as trial and error, Wells said. Also, the ability to grow any three-dimensional organ in a lab is a fairly recent development. Other researchers have grown flat samples of gastric tissue, but few had successfully leapt into 3D territory, he said.
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