Our long national nightmare is over: At last, scientists can make rabbit penis spare parts.
In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers led by Anthony Atala published the results of their successful attempt to engineer new corpora cavernosas, the column of tissue that engorges with blood during male arousal, for male rabbits. Other procedures can partially restore function to a damaged phallus, and Atala’s team has previously shown they could replace a small portion of the tissue (they had up to a 50 percent success rate in rabbits) [Scientific American]. This, however, was the first time they totally replaced corpora cavernosas.
Atala is best known for developing a technique in which cells are taken from an organ and sprayed onto a frame made of collagen, the primary structural protein in animal tissue. The structure is then bathed with growth-stimulating compounds and kept in an oven that duplicates the body’s temperature and chemical composition. Given these starting conditions, natural biology does the rest [Wired.com].
In this experiment, the team surgically removed the corpora cavernosas of 12 rabbits, and replaced them with new “scaffolds” built through this technique. The tissue took hold, and copulation ensued at stereotypical rabbit pace. Every one of the revitalized dozen attempted to mate within a minute of being introduced to females; four became fathers.
The Wake Forest research contains the standard caveat: No, the technique isn’t ready for humans yet. But when it is, look out. Such methods could potentially aid men who just want to enhance their normal penises, rather than repairing any damage. “Our intent and the goal of our work is to provide a solution for men who need penile erectile tissue for medical reasons…. Of course, you cannot control how the technology is used in terms of what patients want” [LiveScience], says Atala.
Related Content:
80beats: To Mend a Broken Heart, Scientists Start in the Stomach
80beats: Scientists Transform Diabetics’ Skin Cells Into Insulin-Producing Cells
80beats: Adult Mouse Gets a New Tooth, Grown From Embryonic Cells
Discoblog: Need a New Pancreas? It May Come from a Sheep.
Image: flickr/Gidzy
November 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Male rabbits may rejoice, but will the females? “Oh no. I was finally getting enough sleep, and now he’s back with replacement parts”. :-)
November 10th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Kind of interesting in a Frankenstein-esque way. Objectively speaking though, I’m a little disturbed by how much medical research is driven by male phallic inadequacies.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I imagine that the thing actually driving this advance is interest in restorative and reconstructive surgeries for men damaged by things like improvised explosive devices in Iraq/Afghanistan, or suffering other types of damage from accidents like 3rd degree burns. That’s a wonderful thing. That’s not an issue of inadequacies. Hitherto there was no way to functionally replace such tissue loss.
It probably says more about popular interests, rather than the science itself, that the personal equipment enhancement angle is mentioned. It doesn’t take people long to extrapolate to wider uses.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
It also really raises some interesting questions for vegetarians.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Egads, yet another ‘erectile disfunction’ angle for spam.
BTW, were rabbits as a species really in such difficulty in this area?
;-)
November 10th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
sounds like another way for rich boys to enlarge thier inadequate male members.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
JD: What aspect of Western Civilization is NOT driven by male phallic inadequacies?
November 11th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
No just Western civilization, but ALL of civilization from the beginning 200k plus years ago, to the end of history…Dec 21, 2012…:-)
November 12th, 2009 at 2:30 am
Looks like Miss Deborah was the only adult to weigh in, and with the right response.
Fact is, people lucky enough to spend their time immersed in and excited by thought-intensive work, such as the sciences, are not consumed by their baser instincts. That has its place, obviously, but there are more intersting worlds to live in.
March 9th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
well me being a man wanting to satisfy the woman that I’m with …. I am always looking to try and enhance the experience … out of all the women that i have been with the general thing that i have heard coming from their mouths is that they want larger … and more from their man… so I myself am interested in seeing the results..I would even consider the possibility of surgery to make my unit larger and more responsive…lets face it guys… women always say it’s not the size but the motion …. but we all know they are just trying to be nice…