Tissue engineers grow penis in the lab

http://www.newscientist.com/news/pri...?id=ns99992781

In a remarkable feat of tissue engineering, major parts of the penises of several rabbits have been replaced with segments grown in a lab from their own cells. The animals were able to use the reconstructed organs to mate.

The next step is to try to recreate the entire organ from scratch. The technique could make it possible to reconstruct the penises of men who have suffered injuries or those of children born with genital abnormalities.

"If you have a child born with ambiguous genitalia, it's a life-changing event," says Anthony Atala of Harvard Medical School, whose team carried out the work.


It could also provide an alternative to the crude methods currently used to enlarge the organ, such as injecting fat cells or cutting the penis's suspensory ligament and "pulling out" more of the internal part. Instead, a patient would have penile cells removed by a doctor and, a few weeks later, the organ or parts of it grown using the cells could be surgically implanted.

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Could all this lead to new heated debates over which sex to keep and which to clip or law suits claiming the wrong one was removed. And phrases like: "When is he gonna grow a set of balls" might just take on new meaning.