Older people who suffer from painful joints will have them replaced, say scientists.
Photograph: Barry Austin/Getty Images
Expect not only a ripe old age but a fit old age, scientists said yesterday at the launch of a research initiative on replacing worn-out body parts and allowing everyone to be as active in their second half-century as they were in their first.
More than half of all babies born today in rich nations will live to be 100, according to research published recently in the Lancet. But as joints begin to crumble, arteries fur up and teeth fall out, the prospect may not always be a happy one.
At the University of Leeds, the country's biggest bioengineering unit and the world leader in artificial joint replacement research is co-ordinating a project that aims to give people 50 active years after the age of 50.
The bionic pensioner of the future could have new hip and knee joints that last for 50 years instead of 20, with new cartilage in the knee and a replacement kneecap. He or she might have a new heart valve and patches on their arteries. Crucially, the technology exists or is fast being developed to ensure the body does not reject the parts as they will appear to its immune system as if they are its own.
Funding of £50m has come from research councils, charities and industry. The aim is to bring together scientists and engineers from all over the UK and turn their discoveries into real applications.
"None of us is getting any younger," said Professor Eileen Ingham, deputy director of Leeds' Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. "These advanced therapies will be available to help people, but only if we can take these world-class ideas and turn them into tangible products. The UK has had a historical inability to take innovations and translate them into best practices, but we do have some really good science."
Among the institute's achievements are heart valves that will not be rejected by the body and could last a lifetime. Donated human heart valves are put through a procedure to strip them of all foreign DNA that could lead to them being rejected. "They go through a series of washes with buffers, detergents and enzymes to gently remove the living cells and remnants of the cell membranes," said Ingham.
The surgeon implants the residual scaffold and the patient's body does the rest, populating the valve with cells. The valve works from the start, and colonisation with the patient's cells prevents rejection. In animal studies this took six to nine months. Forty patients in the first clinical trial in Brazil had such heart valves implanted. "Four years down the line they are not being rejected," said Ingham. The technology has been licensed to NHS Blood and Transplant, partners in the initiative, so it will be available on the health service.
The same techniques can be used to create new cartilage and skin for burns victims. The transplants are no longer living tissue, and can be stored in the hospital in a bag, ready for surgeons to use.
Professor John Fisher, director of the institute, said he believed the programme could deliver 10 new products within five years, and halve the time such innovations take to get to market. "By 2015 we absolutely believe we will be delivering improvements for patients, through the NHS or in commercial products that will be sold throughout the world," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
October 20, 2009
UK: Replacement body parts offer active old age for future pensioners
.
LONDON, England / The Guardian / Society / Older People / October 20, 2009
Generation set to live to 100 will benefit from from £50m bio-technology research project
By Sarah Boseley, health editor
Older people who suffer from painful joints will have them replaced, say scientists.
Photograph: Barry Austin/Getty Images
Expect not only a ripe old age but a fit old age, scientists said yesterday at the launch of a research initiative on replacing worn-out body parts and allowing everyone to be as active in their second half-century as they were in their first.
More than half of all babies born today in rich nations will live to be 100, according to research published recently in the Lancet. But as joints begin to crumble, arteries fur up and teeth fall out, the prospect may not always be a happy one.
At the University of Leeds, the country's biggest bioengineering unit and the world leader in artificial joint replacement research is co-ordinating a project that aims to give people 50 active years after the age of 50.
The bionic pensioner of the future could have new hip and knee joints that last for 50 years instead of 20, with new cartilage in the knee and a replacement kneecap. He or she might have a new heart valve and patches on their arteries. Crucially, the technology exists or is fast being developed to ensure the body does not reject the parts as they will appear to its immune system as if they are its own.
Funding of £50m has come from research councils, charities and industry. The aim is to bring together scientists and engineers from all over the UK and turn their discoveries into real applications.
"None of us is getting any younger," said Professor Eileen Ingham, deputy director of Leeds' Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. "These advanced therapies will be available to help people, but only if we can take these world-class ideas and turn them into tangible products. The UK has had a historical inability to take innovations and translate them into best practices, but we do have some really good science."
Among the institute's achievements are heart valves that will not be rejected by the body and could last a lifetime. Donated human heart valves are put through a procedure to strip them of all foreign DNA that could lead to them being rejected. "They go through a series of washes with buffers, detergents and enzymes to gently remove the living cells and remnants of the cell membranes," said Ingham.
The surgeon implants the residual scaffold and the patient's body does the rest, populating the valve with cells. The valve works from the start, and colonisation with the patient's cells prevents rejection. In animal studies this took six to nine months. Forty patients in the first clinical trial in Brazil had such heart valves implanted. "Four years down the line they are not being rejected," said Ingham. The technology has been licensed to NHS Blood and Transplant, partners in the initiative, so it will be available on the health service.
The same techniques can be used to create new cartilage and skin for burns victims. The transplants are no longer living tissue, and can be stored in the hospital in a bag, ready for surgeons to use.
Professor John Fisher, director of the institute, said he believed the programme could deliver 10 new products within five years, and halve the time such innovations take to get to market. "By 2015 we absolutely believe we will be delivering improvements for patients, through the NHS or in commercial products that will be sold throughout the world," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Older people who suffer from painful joints will have them replaced, say scientists.
Photograph: Barry Austin/Getty Images
Expect not only a ripe old age but a fit old age, scientists said yesterday at the launch of a research initiative on replacing worn-out body parts and allowing everyone to be as active in their second half-century as they were in their first.
More than half of all babies born today in rich nations will live to be 100, according to research published recently in the Lancet. But as joints begin to crumble, arteries fur up and teeth fall out, the prospect may not always be a happy one.
At the University of Leeds, the country's biggest bioengineering unit and the world leader in artificial joint replacement research is co-ordinating a project that aims to give people 50 active years after the age of 50.
The bionic pensioner of the future could have new hip and knee joints that last for 50 years instead of 20, with new cartilage in the knee and a replacement kneecap. He or she might have a new heart valve and patches on their arteries. Crucially, the technology exists or is fast being developed to ensure the body does not reject the parts as they will appear to its immune system as if they are its own.
Funding of £50m has come from research councils, charities and industry. The aim is to bring together scientists and engineers from all over the UK and turn their discoveries into real applications.
"None of us is getting any younger," said Professor Eileen Ingham, deputy director of Leeds' Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. "These advanced therapies will be available to help people, but only if we can take these world-class ideas and turn them into tangible products. The UK has had a historical inability to take innovations and translate them into best practices, but we do have some really good science."
Among the institute's achievements are heart valves that will not be rejected by the body and could last a lifetime. Donated human heart valves are put through a procedure to strip them of all foreign DNA that could lead to them being rejected. "They go through a series of washes with buffers, detergents and enzymes to gently remove the living cells and remnants of the cell membranes," said Ingham.
The surgeon implants the residual scaffold and the patient's body does the rest, populating the valve with cells. The valve works from the start, and colonisation with the patient's cells prevents rejection. In animal studies this took six to nine months. Forty patients in the first clinical trial in Brazil had such heart valves implanted. "Four years down the line they are not being rejected," said Ingham. The technology has been licensed to NHS Blood and Transplant, partners in the initiative, so it will be available on the health service.
The same techniques can be used to create new cartilage and skin for burns victims. The transplants are no longer living tissue, and can be stored in the hospital in a bag, ready for surgeons to use.
Professor John Fisher, director of the institute, said he believed the programme could deliver 10 new products within five years, and halve the time such innovations take to get to market. "By 2015 we absolutely believe we will be delivering improvements for patients, through the NHS or in commercial products that will be sold throughout the world," he said. [rc]
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
