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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Penile growth

In a “landmark development” researchers have created an “artificial penis” that has allowed rabbits with damaged penises to successfully mate. The urologists say that the procedure might one day help treat men with severe erectile dysfunction.

The technique involves a new method of tissue-engineering which enabled the team to use the animals' own cells to build the spongy tissue structure that makes up the bulk of the penis.

The functioning penises were the latest achievement of Anthony Atala and colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US. This is the same team that hit the headlines in April with the first bio-engineered human bladders which were successfully implanted into patients.

This is one more significant step along the way to helping people even more. This same group was able to grow human bladders and now penile tissue. As these developments advance, I think we should keep in mind just how important animal experimentation is and how much that helps people.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey I found this too! it was on yahoo health. i used it as one of my articles.