Lab-grown vocal cords offer hope of treating voice disorders
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – From mom’s comforting croon to a shout of warning, our voices are the main way we communicate and one we take for granted unless something goes wrong. Now researchers have grown human vocal cords in the laboratory that appear capable of producing sound – in hopes of one day helping people with voice-robbing diseases or injuries.
Millions of people suffer from voice impairments, usually the temporary kind such as laryngitis from a virus or a singer who overdoes the performing.
But sometimes the vocal cords become too scarred and stiff to work properly, or even develop cancer and must be removed.
There are few treatments for extensive damage.
Wednesday, researchers at the University of WisconsinMadison reported the first lab-grown replacement tissue that appears pretty close to the real thing – and that produced some sound when tested in voice boxes taken from animals.
The vocal cords, what scientists call “vocal folds,” sit inside the larynx or voice box, near the Adam’s apple in the neck.
Welham’s team started with some rare donations of vocal cords from four patients who had had their larynx removed for non-cancerous reasons, and from one deceased donor.
The researchers culled two types of cells that made up most of the tissue, and grew a large supply of them.
Then they arranged the cells on 3-D collagen scaffolding, and the two cell types began mixing and growing. In 14 days, the result was tissue with the shape and elasticity of human vocal cords, and with similar chemical properties.
But could it work? To tell, the researchers turned to a technique that sounds, well, strange but is a staple in voice research. They took a larynx that had been removed from a large dog after its death and attached it to a plastic “windpipe” that blew in warm air to simulate breath.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported the first lab-grown replacement tissue that appears pretty close to the real thing.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON – From mom’s comforting croon to a shout of warning, our voices are the main way we communicate and one we take for granted unless something goes wrong. Now researchers have grown human vocal cords in the laboratory that appear capable of producing sound – in hopes of one day helping people with voice-robbing diseases or injuries.
Millions of people suffer from voice impairments, usually the temporary kind such as laryngitis from a virus or a singer who overdoes the performing.
But sometimes the vocal cords become too scarred and stiff to work properly, or even develop cancer and must be removed.
There are few treatments for extensive damage.
Wednesday, researchers at the University of WisconsinMadison reported the first lab-grown replacement tissue that appears pretty close to the real thing – and that produced some sound when tested in voice boxes taken from animals.
The vocal cords, what scientists call “vocal folds,” sit inside the larynx or voice box, near the Adam’s apple in the neck.
Welham’s team started with some rare donations of vocal cords from four patients who had had their larynx removed for non-cancerous reasons, and from one deceased donor.
The researchers culled two types of cells that made up most of the tissue, and grew a large supply of them.
Then they arranged the cells on 3-D collagen scaffolding, and the two cell types began mixing and growing. In 14 days, the result was tissue with the shape and elasticity of human vocal cords, and with similar chemical properties.
But could it work? To tell, the researchers turned to a technique that sounds, well, strange but is a staple in voice research. They took a larynx that had been removed from a large dog after its death and attached it to a plastic “windpipe” that blew in warm air to simulate breath.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported the first lab-grown replacement tissue that appears pretty close to the real thing.
