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Saw this article on the internet. This fellow had a flatten bladder, and the scientists and doctors were able to grow him a new one from his own cells. He is now functioning normally and has a good life. Maybe one day this can be used to help ICers.
Source < http://www.courant.com/health/connec...411,full.story >
UConn Student Owes His Normal Life To A 'Regenerated' Bladder
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A University of Connecticut sophomore gets a national TV spotlight next week as a leading example of a medical miracle.
Madison resident Lucas Massella, 20, was born with spina bifida and underwent an experimental process a decade ago that replaced his faltering bladder with one of the first to ever be "grown" in a laboratory.
It's not an artificial organ exactly, but a new one created with his own cells. The operation on then 10-year-old Lucas, one of the first examples of "regenerative medicine," is a focus of the special "Explorer: How To Build a Beating Heart" Monday on the National Geographic Channel. It looks at the efforts to regenerate damaged, gaining or diseased body parts.
"I was actually in full-out kidney failure," Massella says in the film. "That's when they decided needed something and fast." Massella's deteriorating bladder was backing up into his kidney.
"The question was: Why not make an organ that actually belongs there?" says Dr. Anthony Atala, a scientist in the field of regenerative medicine who grew Massella a new bladder in the lab at Children's Hospital Boston using the youngster's own stem cells.
It's one of several startling examples in the report, which also shows the famous mouse with a human ear attached and a man whose regenerated fingertip ended up with the same fingerprint as the one he accidentally sliced off.
For all that his successful new organ represents, few would now guess that Massella was once sickly.
"When I was born, they weren't sure if I was going to be able to walk," Massella said in a recent interview. "As I got older, I did start to walk and stuff. I do remember when I was 3 or 4, I had to wear braces on the legs to help me walk."
Massella was in and out of the hospital for repeated spinal-cord-repair surgeries.
"I had about 16 altogether," he said, "probably the majority of them before I was 10. Since I was 10, I've only had four surgeries."
That's because of the experimental procedure, which came when things were the worst for him.
"I remember being really scared when they said I'd be in kidney failure," he said.
Without the new bladder, he said, "I was probably looking at a lifetime of dialysis. I wouldn't be eligible to have a kidney transplant because my bladder was messed up. So dialysis was my only other option."
But the decision wasn't his. "My mom definitely had a hard decision to make because it was a hard surgery and experimental," Massella said.
"I was one of the first of to have it," he said. "It sounded pretty crazy, but not as crazy as it does now."
The experiment involved building a new bladder in the lab by infusing Massella's own cells into a small, bladder-sized mold.
The process was surprisingly fast. "What they did was, in June, they took a little piece of my bladder out, used the cells to grow it into its own bladder [during the summer]."
The cells were dripped on a mold, a three-dimensional, biodegradable "scaffold," that had the appearance of a bladder. "It looks like a small cast" said Massella, who is seen in the film turning the baseball-sized mold in his hands.
"Wow," he said. "Weird."
Once the cells had started forming a new bladder on the mold, the whole thing was implanted in his body. The mold "completely dissolved once the cells took over after it was put inside me," he said. "My body took to it right away."
After a month in the hospital and two months of bed rest at home, "I felt a lot better. By that winter, I was playing basketball."
Massella was partly inspired to get back in action by his twin brother, Zach.
"That was a good motivation to get better — to get in competition with him. That was fun."
As he grew up, he limited his sports to baseball and wrestling, which became his favorite. He became captain of the wrestling team at Madison's Daniel Hand High School and led them to a conference championship.
And still the other athletes didn't know they were grappling with a guy who had an organ grown in a lab.
"A few of my friends and teammates did know," Massella says. "And my coach did — he was my neighbor when that was going on."
But "my opponents never knew it. Only a couple of friends. To most people just a normal kid, and that's what I like."
Massella graduated from Hand in 2009 and enrolled at UConn, where just last week he declared a major in communications. Some children who have been through so much medically want to go into medicine, but not Massella.
"I did think about that when I was younger," he said. "But I've been in enough hospitals."
At college, he's still playing sports, but "just intramural basketball, intramural flag football. Just having fun."
His medical miracle has mostly been unheralded on campus, but he'll be having a viewing party of the National Geographic special when it airs Monday.
"Hopefully, they'll see me as the same kid," he said. "But I did go through some stuff."
He learned a bit about what he went through in the documentary as well.
"I have so much of a better understanding of exactly what they did in mine and some of the other procedures."
To help promote the special, Massella and his mother were flown out to Los Angeles last month to take part in the TV Critics Association winter press tour. As part of a National Geographic panel, he was a celebrity for a day.
"It was crazy," Massella said. "I couldn't believe it, walking around meeting people with crazy stories. I felt my story was nothing compared to others."
On a National Geographic panel with him was the subject of another documentary: reporter Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped in Beirut in 1985 and kept in captivity for seven years.
"He really stood out," Massella said. "I felt like a movie star, even though I'm not."
Source < http://www.courant.com/health/connec...411,full.story >
UConn Student Owes His Normal Life To A 'Regenerated' Bladder
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A University of Connecticut sophomore gets a national TV spotlight next week as a leading example of a medical miracle.
Madison resident Lucas Massella, 20, was born with spina bifida and underwent an experimental process a decade ago that replaced his faltering bladder with one of the first to ever be "grown" in a laboratory.
It's not an artificial organ exactly, but a new one created with his own cells. The operation on then 10-year-old Lucas, one of the first examples of "regenerative medicine," is a focus of the special "Explorer: How To Build a Beating Heart" Monday on the National Geographic Channel. It looks at the efforts to regenerate damaged, gaining or diseased body parts.
"I was actually in full-out kidney failure," Massella says in the film. "That's when they decided needed something and fast." Massella's deteriorating bladder was backing up into his kidney.
"The question was: Why not make an organ that actually belongs there?" says Dr. Anthony Atala, a scientist in the field of regenerative medicine who grew Massella a new bladder in the lab at Children's Hospital Boston using the youngster's own stem cells.
It's one of several startling examples in the report, which also shows the famous mouse with a human ear attached and a man whose regenerated fingertip ended up with the same fingerprint as the one he accidentally sliced off.
For all that his successful new organ represents, few would now guess that Massella was once sickly.
"When I was born, they weren't sure if I was going to be able to walk," Massella said in a recent interview. "As I got older, I did start to walk and stuff. I do remember when I was 3 or 4, I had to wear braces on the legs to help me walk."
Massella was in and out of the hospital for repeated spinal-cord-repair surgeries.
"I had about 16 altogether," he said, "probably the majority of them before I was 10. Since I was 10, I've only had four surgeries."
That's because of the experimental procedure, which came when things were the worst for him.
"I remember being really scared when they said I'd be in kidney failure," he said.
Without the new bladder, he said, "I was probably looking at a lifetime of dialysis. I wouldn't be eligible to have a kidney transplant because my bladder was messed up. So dialysis was my only other option."
But the decision wasn't his. "My mom definitely had a hard decision to make because it was a hard surgery and experimental," Massella said.
"I was one of the first of to have it," he said. "It sounded pretty crazy, but not as crazy as it does now."
The experiment involved building a new bladder in the lab by infusing Massella's own cells into a small, bladder-sized mold.
The process was surprisingly fast. "What they did was, in June, they took a little piece of my bladder out, used the cells to grow it into its own bladder [during the summer]."
The cells were dripped on a mold, a three-dimensional, biodegradable "scaffold," that had the appearance of a bladder. "It looks like a small cast" said Massella, who is seen in the film turning the baseball-sized mold in his hands.
"Wow," he said. "Weird."
Once the cells had started forming a new bladder on the mold, the whole thing was implanted in his body. The mold "completely dissolved once the cells took over after it was put inside me," he said. "My body took to it right away."
After a month in the hospital and two months of bed rest at home, "I felt a lot better. By that winter, I was playing basketball."
Massella was partly inspired to get back in action by his twin brother, Zach.
"That was a good motivation to get better — to get in competition with him. That was fun."
As he grew up, he limited his sports to baseball and wrestling, which became his favorite. He became captain of the wrestling team at Madison's Daniel Hand High School and led them to a conference championship.
And still the other athletes didn't know they were grappling with a guy who had an organ grown in a lab.
"A few of my friends and teammates did know," Massella says. "And my coach did — he was my neighbor when that was going on."
But "my opponents never knew it. Only a couple of friends. To most people just a normal kid, and that's what I like."
Massella graduated from Hand in 2009 and enrolled at UConn, where just last week he declared a major in communications. Some children who have been through so much medically want to go into medicine, but not Massella.
"I did think about that when I was younger," he said. "But I've been in enough hospitals."
At college, he's still playing sports, but "just intramural basketball, intramural flag football. Just having fun."
His medical miracle has mostly been unheralded on campus, but he'll be having a viewing party of the National Geographic special when it airs Monday.
"Hopefully, they'll see me as the same kid," he said. "But I did go through some stuff."
He learned a bit about what he went through in the documentary as well.
"I have so much of a better understanding of exactly what they did in mine and some of the other procedures."
To help promote the special, Massella and his mother were flown out to Los Angeles last month to take part in the TV Critics Association winter press tour. As part of a National Geographic panel, he was a celebrity for a day.
"It was crazy," Massella said. "I couldn't believe it, walking around meeting people with crazy stories. I felt my story was nothing compared to others."
On a National Geographic panel with him was the subject of another documentary: reporter Terry Anderson, who was kidnapped in Beirut in 1985 and kept in captivity for seven years.
"He really stood out," Massella said. "I felt like a movie star, even though I'm not."
My brother in law Had MS back in '69, he lived with it for just 20 yrs.
NO need to apologize, I understand what you were saying, I didn't mean to come across that way. I just wanted to mention my brother in law's case because of what was thought back then . Guess I didn't say it too well.
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