This NewScientist (9 January 2021) article on using bread as a scaffolding for growing new human organs contains an even more startling revelation:
While bread-based tissue engineering might sound rather implausible, an even more unlikely sounding project based on one of [Andrew Pelling at the University of Ottawa]’s plant materials is looking very promising: treating spinal injuries with asparagus.
Pelling’s team has shown that rats whose spinal cords have been completely severed can recover some movement after implanting capillaries extracted from asparagus. The microchannels guide the growth of axons from nerve cells, allowing some connections to be remade.
Pelling stresses that it isn’t a miracle cure and other teams have achieved similar results in rats. Yet the big advantage is that it doesn’t require using living cells, making it much cheaper and simpler than many other approaches. In October, the US Food and Drug Administration designated the implant as a “breakthrough device”, which speeds up the process of beginning human trials.
I wonder how quickly someone will take offense at the use of asparagus to repair damage to the human body. Surely someone will be appalled.
