Successfully cultivated human kidneys in the laboratory

British scientists successfully created kidneys from stem cells. This is a breakthrough step, enabling patients to receive kidney transplants from their own body cells.

The use of stem cell technology promises to help scientists successfully create many artificial organs for the human body.Photo: Alamy.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh (UK) have successfully created artificial kidneys in the laboratory using amniotic cells from humans and fetuses of animals. Artificial kidneys are 0.5cm long, equivalent to the size of the kidneys of a fetus in the womb.

The team hopes to nourish artificial kidneys to the size of adult kidneys when transplanted into patients.

The breakthrough study could help people with kidney disease transplant artificial kidneys from their stem cells. This method also helps patients not to use anti-renal rejection drugs like when transplanting a kidney from another person.

The Telegraph newspaper quoted Dr. Jamie Davies, the head of the study, saying: ' We started the idea with human stem cells and cultivated them into a complete organ in the body. The success of the research is a bit like a science fiction movie, but it's completely true . '

The team hopes doctors can store the membranes around the fetus after birth. These amniotic membranes will be used to cultivate artificial kidneys in the case of people with stored membranes with kidney disease.

Dr Jamie Davies added that artificial kidney culture technology will be applied in humans within 10 years. The study will be officially announced at a scientific conference in Edinburgh this month.