2 ms·
We're still quite a ways for using this process for anything much bigger than a mouse - right now the nutrients are being supplied entirely via diffusion, witho
by telotortium 6y ago
We're still quite a ways for using this process for anything much bigger than a mouse - right now the nutrients are being supplied entirely via diffusion, without a working blood supply:
> At Day 11 of development — more than halfway through a mouse pregnancy — Dr. Hanna and his colleagues examined the embryos, only the size of apple seeds, and compared them to those developing in the uteruses of living mice. The lab embryos were identical, the scientists found.
> By that time, though, the lab-grown embryos had become too large to survive without a blood supply. They had a placenta and a yolk sack, but the nutrient solution that fed them through diffusion was no longer sufficient.
> Getting past that hurdle is the next goal, Dr. Hanna said in an interview. He is considering using an enriched nutrient solution or an artificial blood supply that connects to the embryos’ placentas.
- rarefied_tomato 6y agoTo avoid reliance on a living output, perhaps synthetic red blood cells would be used in such a fluid. https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2020/acs-presspac-june-3-2020/synthetic-red-blood-cells-mimic-natural-ones-and-have-new-abilities.html https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2020/...
- TheAdamAndChe 6y agoAny idea how it would interface with the placenta? Normal mammals use umbilical cords.
- rarefied_tomato 6y agoMaybe a cannula would be attached at a certain point? I think the real difficulty would be producing nutrients and mixing them into the blood. I am clearly a nonexpert. I brought this up thinking about the broader "chicken and egg" ethics & scaling problem of tissue growth. Currently the biotissue alternative meats are dependent on fetal bovine serum to get started. A vegan might object to these meats. I don't personally support these methods, and am just spitballing ideas on the tech side of the aforementioned problem.