Stem cells are now being induced from the same tissue one wants to create. The example given is a graphic representation of an ear in a laboratory petri dish. A soldier with a severe injury to his or her ear can now have it re-grown from his or her own stem cells. The process would involve a ‘scaffolding’ of re-absorbable material on which the cell cultures grow and once growth has taken place and the ear is put in place, the scaffold re-absorbs on its own at a later stage.

Naturally the ear is a simple tissue. It contains mostly two types of tissue externally – skin and cartilage. This does not include of course the middle and inner ear. But successes have been registered in the United States with other organs. At Wake Forest University, California, a bladder was grown on a balloon scaffold, from the cells of the same diseased bladder of the patient. The bladder has three layers of different types of cells and the researcher described growing the types layer by layer, much like you would put on the layers of a cake. The advantage of course is that it is the persons own tissue which is used to grow the new bladder and therefore one would not have problems with rejection.

There are more complicated organs however. A kidney has several types of cells and tissues and they are not in simple layers. In this case a technology similar to ink-jet is used. The machine puts the different type of cells grown separately into a three-dimensional framework by printing, as it were, different types of cells layer by layer until the whole organ is built up. The article also states that different researchers have had different successes. One researcher has managed to build a functioning heart of a mouse.

Others are using embryonic stem cells to be used for different organs – there is always the case where the defective organ is diseased and cannot be used. The only difference to the controversial method of taking them directly from the embryo, is that they now take the stem cells from the amniotic fluid of the growing baby.

Why did they not think of this before? Of course the technology of inducing stem cells is more recent and being that necessity is the mother of invention, the controversy around using live embryos for research has stimulated minds into other areas – hopefully proving once and for all that science is not the enemy and that the warning of ‘playing God’ is indeed being heeded.

From these cells a bank of more than 100,000 cell types have been created so that the future – I would say within the next 10 to 20 years – holds a scenario where a surgeon can order for you the organ you need and your cell type is taken from the bank. Alternatively, if the organ is not diseased, its own cells can be induced into stem cells.

It is good to think that Malta is playing a role in stem cell research.

Pierre Mallia is Associate Professor in Family Medicine, Patients’ Rights and Bioethics at the University of Malta; he is also Ethics Advisor to the Medical Council of Malta. He is also former president of the Malta College of Family Doctors.