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Comment by invalidOrTaken | Hacker News Reader

I was flabbergasted to read that the new trachea grew in two days. Is this normal, or would they have had to put some sort of growth stimulant in the bioreactor?

If I sound ignorant, it's because I am, and I'd love for someone more knowledgeable about biotech to set me straight.

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tspiteri 3 hours ago | link

The BBC site has a more detailed article from three days ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14047670 It says that the organ was made of glass in London, and then flown to Sweden and soaked for two days in a solution of the patient's stem cells.

That's nice, but it doesn't answer the question of whether two days is a normal amount of time to grow a trachea or if they used a growth stimulant.

The linked article basically answers the question. The physical shape of the trachea, carina, and right and left mainstem bronchi was created from glass. Over the course of two days, that glass became lined with the patient's cells.

To be clear, the claim is not that the glass was replaced by human cells over the course of two days.

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Those are two totally different questions. To grow a complete trachea in two days would strain credulity. To get a glass template lined with cells in two days seems quite reasonable. Not sure about the specific cells that they used, but other cell types that I have had experience with will become confluent after starting off at a modest concentration within 24-48 hours.

Yeah, that is the most amazing part!

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