Valencia-based cell and tissue bank makes transplants for pets possible
Monday, June 10, 2013 @ 6:17 PM
FOR the first time ever in Spain, a laboratory has been set up with a 'tissue and cell bank' for animals.
Already becoming common practice with human medicine, extracting and harvesting stem cells and using tissues and organs to perform transplants and regenerate damaged body parts is starting to become possible in domestic animals, according to scientists in Valencia – and they say the cost involved to the owner will not be as high as at first glance.
Biologist Vicente Mirabet, director of the firm Tisulab ('tissue-lab') based at Valencia General University Hospital Foundation, says the team have frozen samples of bones, tendons, skin, cells and nerves at -80ºC, always extracted either from animals which have died of natural causes or from live animals, but non-invasively – and in all cases, in completely humane circumstances.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com