Scientists Create Prostate Gland With ES Cells

This is pretty remarkable: Apparently researchers were able to morph human ES cells into prostate gland cells, implant them in mice, and they grew into a complete gland. The researchers claim that this technique will help them gain better understanding of prostate diseases such as cancer.

I don’t know if the mice were kept alive long enough to see if the cells would create a teratoma or whether they needed drugs to prevent rejection.

I have also learned that the work was accomplished with cell lines that would qualify for federal funding under the Bush guidelines.

This experiment demonstrates why some scientists, like Bill Hurlbut, want to create moral alternatives to ESCR, which is why his ANT proposal(one among many) has gotten so much attention.

The story also demonstrates again the importance of using animals in medical research.

One final point: Such experiments point out the benefit of using animals to grow human tissues. However, this would not be an animal/human hybrid as the cells did not alter the genomic makeup of the mouse.