---
title: "Lab-Grown Bladders Can Save People From a Lifetime of Dialysis"
description: "Lab-grown bladders are just one of the many body parts researchers are figuring out how to construct from patients' own cells."
date: "2018-09-12"
modified: "2018-09-13"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/lab-grown-bladders-dialysis"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Prosthetics and Devices"
tags:
  - "bladder"
  - "lab-grown organs"
  - "the digest"
---

# Lab-Grown Bladders Can Save People From a Lifetime of Dialysis

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/bladder.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## ONE IN A MILLION TEN

Today, about 10 people on Earth have bladders they weren't born with. No, they didn't receive bladder transplants — doctors grew these folks new bladders using the recipients' own cells.

On Tuesday, the *BBC* published a report on the still-nascent procedure of transplanting lab-grown bladders. In it, the publication talks to Luke Massella, who underwent the procedure more than a decade ago. Massella was born with spina bifida, which carries with it a risk of damage to the bladder and urinary tract. Now, he lives a normal life, he [told the *BBC*](<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45470799>).

"I was kind of facing the possibility I might have to do dialysis \[blood purification via machine\] for the rest of my life," he said. "I wouldn't be able to play sports, and have the normal kid life with my brother."

All that changed after Anthony Atala, a surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, decided he was going to grow a new bladder for Massella.

## ONE NEW BLADDER, COMING UP!

To do that, Atala first removed a small piece of Massella's own bladder. He then removed cells from this portion of bladder and multiplied them in a petri dish. Once he had enough cells, he coated a scaffold with the cells and placed the whole thing in a temperature controlled, high oxygen environment. After a few weeks, the lab-created bladder was ready for transplantation into Massella.

"So it was pretty much like getting a bladder transplant, but from my own cells, so you don't have to deal with rejection," said Massella.

The number of people with lab-grown bladders might still be low enough to count on your fingers, but researchers are making huge advances in growing everything from [organs](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/lab-grown-lungs-transplant>) to [skin](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/hairy-lab-grown-skin>) in the lab. Eventually, we might reach a point when we can replace any body part we need to with a perfect biological match [that we built ourselves](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/fda-wants-expedite-approval-regenerative-organ-therapies>).

**READ MORE:** ["A New Bladder Made From My Cells Gave Me My Life Back"](<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45470799>) \[*BBC*\]

***More on growing organs: [The FDA Wants to Expedite Approval of Regenerative Organ Therapies](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/fda-wants-expedite-approval-regenerative-organ-therapies>)***

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)