To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE
"Artificial Womb" Could Offer New Hope for Premature BabiesResearchers have designed a womb-like device that could allow premature babies to develop their lungs and organs in the critical few weeks that remain before they face the outside world. [News-Medical.Net] In animal studies, the artificial womb provided a prenatal, fluid-filled environment in which premature lambs stayed alive and grew for four weeks, which is the longest time to date. (Screengrab: Nature Communications/via CNN) Leader of the research and fetal surgeon at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Alan Flake, says the lambs "appear to have normal development in all respects." The lambs could breathe normally, open their eyes, swallow and had normal neurological function and organ maturity, important improvement over the incubation and ventilating devices currently used to help keep babies alive. Flake and team hope the technology could one day be used to treat tiny, premature human babies and help them to grow up healthy. As reported in Nature Communications, Flake and team tested the device using eight fetal lambs, which have very similar prenatal lung development to humans. The lambs were physiologically equivalent to human babies of 23- to 24-week gestation. The device provides a fluid-filled, temperature-controlled, near-sterile environment in which a baby can breathe amniotic fluid as it would do in a real womb, whilst the heart pumps blood through the umbilical cord to a machine that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide. (Screengrab: Nature Communications/via CNN) Designer of the flow apparatus, Marcus Davey (also from CHOP) explains: "Fetal lungs are designed to function in fluid, and we simulate that environment here, allowing the lungs and other organs to develop, while supplying nutrients and growth factors." Flake and team will continue to refine and safety-test the device, which will need to pass through animal trials before humans studies could be considered. It will also need to be down-sized, since human babies are only one-third the size of the lambs used in the study. The researchers believe the technology could be ready for such tests within five years.
To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE Other Recent Articles from Breaking Christian News Trump Under Fire for Endorsing the Bible, Urging Americans to Pray Speaker Johnson Announces He'll Invite Netanyahu to Address Congress Federal Appeals Court Rules Pennsylvania Must Only Count Mail Ballots With Dates, Signatures President Trump to Join Wake Honoring Slain NYPD Officer, While Biden Attends Fundraiser Elon Musk to Pay Embattled Doctor's Legal Fees after Speaking Out against COVID Lockdowns Safety of Women Hangs in Balance after Oral Arguments on Abortion Pill Regulation New Federal Gun Grab Law Would Criminalize Shooting Ranges, and Even Private Security Treasury Sec. Yellen: Biden Has NO Plan to Save Social Security Chick-fil-A Abandons Long-Held 'No Antibiotics' Pledge on Chicken The War in Myanmar: Karenni Resistance Fighters Ask for Prayer and Practical Help The World Is Facing a Major Population Crisis by 2075 If Birth Rates Keep Falling FDA Admits COVID Vaccines Cause Seizures in Toddlers Kamala Harris Won't Disclose Why Biden Campaign Is Active on TikTok Despite Security Worries Search the Articles Archives |
All articles on this site and emails from BCN are copyrighted property of Breaking Christian News. Permission is given to link to, or share a BCN story if proper attribution is given to both the original writer and summarizer of the story. Breaking Christian News 2005-2019. All Rights Reserved.
Breaking Christian News is a division of Elijah List Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: Articles and links, as well as the source articles linked to; do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Breaking Christian News.
Home | Store | Subscribe | Facebook | Article Archive |