TOKYO — 
 
 The University of Tokyo and Kyoto University said Friday they have succeeded in creating human ear cartilage from iPS cells. 
 
 The University of Tokyo released photos of a rat with cartilage in the shape of a human ear implanted on its back. The researchers hope they can use the new technology in treating patients born without ears or with small ears, with a clinical study involving humans expected to start in five years. 
 
 The researchers at the two state-run universities cultured human induced pluripotent stem cells into cartilage cells, which were then made into numerous tiny balls. 
 
 They filled a plastic tube with the diameter of about 3 millimeters with the balls. Using three such tubes, the researchers shaped a human ear and implanted it onto the back of a rat. 
 
 In about two months, the tubes dissolved, leaving behind on the animal’s back what looks like a 5-centimeter human ear. 
 
 Induced pluripotent stem cells could grow into various human tissues and they are considered promising in the field of regenerative medicine. 
 
 © KYODO ||||| One in 10 American adults will have some level of chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently around 600,000 patients in the U.S. have chronic kidney failure. Most rely on dialysis while a fraction of them actually get transplants. Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco are on a mission to create a sophisticated artificial kidney device made with human kidney cells, silicon nanofilters and powered by blood pressure. The project, led by UCSF nephrologist William Fissell and bioengineering professor Shuvo Roy, aims to begin testing the kidney device in 2017. 
 
 Little by little, bioengineered intestines are being grown in the lab to diagnose digestive disorders and to help patients born without a piece of intestine. In 2011, Cornell biological and environmental engineering assistant professor John March began collaborating with Pittsburgh-based pediatric surgeon David Hackam on a small artificial intestine using collagen and stem cells. Then last year in Switzerland, EPFL professor Martin Gijs led a project in the Laboratory of Microsystems to create a miniature intestinal wall from cultured epithelial cells and electronics called NutriChip to identify foods that cause inflammation. Scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute also made a “gut-on-a chip” to mimic the real thing using intestinal cells in a tiny silicon polymer device. 
 
 When a ruptured or degenerating disc causes chronic back pain, treatment is limited. At worst, patients undergo surgery to fuse vertebrae together and then have limited flexibility. Over the past several years artificial discs have emerged as an alternative, but they can wear out as they work. In 2011, a research team from Cornell University bioengineered implants using gel and collagen seeded with rat cells that were then successfully placed into rat spines. This summer Duke bioengineers took things further, coming up with a gel mixture they think can help regenerate tissue when injected into the space between discs. 
 
 In April, after an international team of surgeons spent nine hours operating on her at Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria, 32-month old Hannah Warren became the youngest patient to ever receive a bioengineered organ. Scientists had made a windpipe for her using her own bone marrow cells. Born without a trachea, she needed help breathing, eating, drinking and talking. Harvard Bioscience created the custom scaffold and bioreactor for the experimental procedure. Sadly Hannah died on July 7 due to complications from a more recent surgery on her esophagus. Despite the high risks, bioengineers say they will continue to move ahead. 
 
 Bioengineers are working on it, but the liver is one of the largest, most challenging organs to recreate. In 2010 bioengineers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center grew miniature livers in the lab using decellularized animal livers for the structure and human cells. This month, a team from the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine published results of a study where they reprogrammed human adult skin cells, added other cell types, and got them to grow into early-stage liver “buds.” Currently the scientists can produce about 100 of them, but the study’s lead author Takanori Takebe told the Wall Street Journal that even a partial liver would require tens of thousands. 
 
 Artificial heart devices have been surgically implanted since the 1980s, but no device has been able to replace the human heart as effectively as a healthy biological one. After all, a human heart pumps 35 million times in a single year. Recently scientists have made advances in adding more biological material to artificial heart devices. In May the French company Carmat prepared to test an artificial device containing cow heart tissue. At Massachusetts General Hospital, surgeon Harald C. Ott and his team are working on a bioartificial heart scaffold while MIT researchers recently printed functional heart tissue from rodent cells. 
 
 Being able to make blood vessels in the lab from a patient’s own cells could mean better treatments for cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes. In 2011, the head of California-based Cytograft Tissue Engineering reported progress in a study where three end-stage kidney disease patients were implanted with blood vessels bioengineered in the lab. After eight months the grafts continued to work well, easing access to dialysis. Then this month a team at Massachusetts General Hospital found a way to encourage stem-like cells to develop into vascular precursor cells, a key step on the way to becoming blood vessel cells. They generated long-lasting blood vessels in living mice. 
 
 Surgeon Anthony Atala directs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and is known for growing new human cells, tissues and organs -- particularly ones that advance urology. Atala and his team’s bioengineered bladders succeeded in clinical trials. The bladders were constructed from patients’ cells that were grown over two months on a biodegradable scaffold and then implanted. Patients included children with spina bifida who risked kidney failure. It’s been several years since then and the results are positive. “These constructs appear to be doing well as patients get older and grow,” Atala told the NIH Record. 
 
 Reproducing 3-D biological structures, particularly the complex human ear, presents significant challenges for bioengineers. A team at Princeton University led by mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor Michael McAlpine used 3-D printing technology to make a functional ear from calf cells and electronic materials. The ear that debuted in May 2013 is no mere replacement -- it can pick up radio frequencies well beyond the range that human ears normally detect. 
 
 Producing small amounts of artificial skin to graft on patients and use for toxicity testing has been possible for years. Human skin cells are cultivated in the lab and then embedded in a collagen scaffold. In 2011, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology introduced a system that can rapidly manufacture two-layer artificial skin models. Their Tissue Factory has the capacity to make 5,000 skin sheets in a month. 
 
 When physicians run out of treatment options they look to a nascent field known as bioengineering. Specialized scientists apply engineering principles to biological systems, opening up the possibility of creating new human tissue, organs, blood and even corneas such as the one shown here. Waiting lists for organ transplants continue to be lengthy so the race to save lives with bioengineered body parts is on. Here’s a look at some of the most notable achievements in recent years. 
 
 For the first time, scientists have used stem cells to grow an adult-size human ear on the back of a rat. 
 
 The scientists, who come from the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, say the ear could be grown to repair faces disfigured in battle or accidents and also help people born without ears or with ear deformities. 
 
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 In the United States alone, a range of about 1 to 5 children out of 10,000 are born with misshapen or missing ears. 
 
 To grow the ear, the team induced pluripotent stem cells to grow into ear cartilage. Those cells were then placed into a kind of biological tubing shaped roughly as an ear. 
 
 The ear form was then implanted under the skin of a live rat and the cells were left to grow for about two months. Around that time, the tubes dissolved, leaving behind the human ear about 2 inches long. 
 
 8 Animals That Can Regrow Their Body Parts 
 
 It’s not the first time researchers have grown an ear on the back of a rat. 
 
 Back in 2013, a team from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston used bovine collagen and cells from sheep to grow an ear on a titanium wire frame shaped like the body part. 
 
 So-called tissue engineering is being explored to grow other kinds of body parts, too, including noses and windpipes. 
 
 Human-Animal Hybrids Growing For Organ Transplants 
 
 The Japanese researchers say because their ear is a living part, it would develop as a child grew. 
 
 They hope to start clinical trials in about five years. 
 
 via The Daily Mail
– Cool—and/or creepy—news out of Japan, where researchers at the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University have created a human ear ... on the back of a rat. The researchers used stem cells that grew into ear cartilage, shaping the cells into an ear by putting them in "biological tubing," Discovery News reports. More specifically, they used "induced pluripotent stem cells," which the National Institutes of Health explains are "adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state." The ear-shaped cartilage was implanted under a rat's skin, where it was allowed to grow for two months; the tubing dissolved and a 2-inch-long ear was left behind. The researchers believe this technology could be used to treat people who are born with no ears or with smaller-than-normal ears, Japan Today reports. It could also be used to repair ears disfigured in accidents, Discovery adds. In the case of a child born with a missing or misshapen ear, the researchers note that the ear they created is "living," and thus would develop and grow along with the child. A clinical trial involving humans is expected to start in five years. In 2013, researchers in Boston used sheep cells, bovine collagen, and an ear-shaped titanium wire frame to grow an ear on the back of another rat, Discovery notes. (These creatures can grow the heads and brains of other species.)