• Question: Can you make a rectum out of stem cells??

    Asked by sevvy4 to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 12 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi sevvy4

      In short, no yet, but in the future yes I think so. The rectum is part of the large intestine, which is quite a complicated organ, but it is mostly made of a layer of epithelial cells with a layer of muscle underneath. There are stem cells in the intestine because it has to renew itself quite often, so if you take these cells you can regrow parts of the intestine, including the rectum. You can also use cells like induced pluripotent stem cells to make epithelial cells and there is no reason why you could not make these into intestinal cells.

      I hope that answers your question.

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