

First Human Liver Grown in Lab - cwan
http://www.webmd.com/news/20101029/first-human-liver-grown-in-lab?src=RSS_PUBLIC

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tgriesser
_"The adult organ has 100 billion liver cells," Baptista says. "The number we
seeded is 100 million. We are quite far away from required number. But our aim
is to reconstitute only 30% of the full-size adult liver, because that is the
bare minimum needed to sustain a person._

So it's not a full human liver but still really cool either way. Although its
deceiving when articles compare large numbers like that...would have better to
say we only seeded 0.1% of a full liver, we need 30%.

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Eniac
On the other hand, once you are growing things, the difference between 100
million and 100 billion is not all that great. Approximately 10 cell divisions
is all it takes...

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8ren
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver#Regeneration>

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tommi
I wonder how this will affect living habits. When you have enough of spare
parts do you still care about the original ones?

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chadp
good question. there are reports of recipients taking on personality traits
from their organ donors after the transplant. in this case, there would be
cause to be attached to one's own original organ as the one from the donor
might "change" you (somehow).

if the new organ was "seeded" from your own dna / cells though, then there
should be no need to get attached to the original organ as the new organ will
be 100% yours too. (well in theory)

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icey
I'm sorry, but do you have some kind of source for the claim about recipients
taking on personality traits from the donor? I know it's been the plot of a
few movies, but I don't think I've ever heard someone suggest it was based in
reality.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it doesn't seem very plausible.

~~~
chadp
tons of stories and links.. google around. [http://hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-
Memories-in-Organ-Transplan...](http://hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-
Organ-Transplant-Recipients)

~~~
icey
I did search before commenting. The most charitable discussions called the
idea pseudoscience and not based on facts.

Also highly ranked on google were discussions like this:

<http://skepdic.com/cellular.html>

I don't know enough about skepdic to judge whether or not they're a valid
source of information; but so far _nothing_ has appeared to have any real
facts about this. Frankly, it strikes me as a fairly ridiculous notion, but if
there are some actual facts out there to be considered then it would be great
to see them. Hubpages is a glorified blogging site from what I can tell.

As far as I'm aware, the only organ that can store memories is the brain; and
I couldn't find anything that was willing to argue against that fact with any
form of scientific rigor.

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chadp
I don't know if it is scientifically proven or not. Here is one small study. I
think it is possible for sure but who knows if it can be proven scientifically
beyond the shadow of a doubt. The fact that it is a possibility is good enough
for me.

I would rather have a farmed organ made and grown from my own cells (assuming
it is possible and proven method of course) than a donor organ that might have
some chance of either rejection or even the remote possibility of adding or
changing my personality / persona.

<http://www.springerlink.com/content/k51335l4k4676577/> "We conducted open-
ended interviews with volunteer transplant recipients, recipient families or
friends, and donor families or friends, in hospitals in various parts of the
country. Patients included ten recipients who had received heart or heart–lung
transplants. Main outcome measures were transcripts of audiotaped interviews
quoted verbatim. Two to 5 parallels per case were observed between changes
following surgery and the histories of the donors. Parallels included changes
in food, music, art, sexual, recreational, and career preferences, as well as
specific instances of perceptions of names and sensory experiences related to
the donors. The incidence of recipient awareness of personal changes in
cardiac transplant patients is unknown. The effects of the immunosuppressant
drugs, stress of the surgery, and statistical coincidence are insufficient to
explain the findings. We suggest that cellular memory, possibly systemic
memory, is a plausible explanation for these parallels."

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noonespecial
If I had nearly died and then been saved by the modern miracle of a heart or
lung transplant, I figure I might change a few things about my personality as
well thanks to my new lease on life. I don't think a wacky "cell memory"
theory is required to explain these observations.

Occam's razor most certainly applies.

