Boob in a Tube: Scientists Grow Breasts in a Lab

Scientists have grown breasts in lab and are trying to understand how and why cancerous tumours grow in them

Okay, one reason you’re reading this story is that you got clickbaited by “boobs”! Admit it.

But hey, this is a really cool story and a huge leap for breast cancer research. So read on.

From a beating heart to a functional penis, scientists can pretty much grow anything in a petri dish. But for the first time they have been able to grow breasts.

Technically, it’s a breast tissue but in the lab, it develops the same way it would in a teen hitting puberty. And this will help scientists understand how the breast develops and what happens when things go awry in breast cancer.

The Experiment

German scientists took cells donated after breast reduction operations and isolated these healthy cells to recreate the breast entirely - including the milk ducts, structures that produce breast milk.

Now only 1 in 2000 of these cells were stem cells but by mixing them with high powered nutrients, experts were able to increase their growth by almost five times.

Now the network of milk ducts keeps changing throughout a girl’s life post puberty, especially after she’s had children - but this process is not well understood. No one knows why some cells go awry and regenerate overtime.

Significance

Scientists have already made a key finding. In the lab culture, breast cells grew aggressively and acted more tumour-like when the collagen was kept rigid. Ona softer, more flexible framework, the cells grew normally. Could this explain why women with dense breasts have higher rates of breast cancer?

This model will allow us to better study normal breast development, and then to understand the first steps that predispose women to developing tumors.

– Dr. Christina Scheel, Researcher, Helmholtz Center for Health and Environmental Research

Experts will also try new drugs on this mini lab boob to come up with effective novel  treatment options.

With breast cancer rates projected to double in the next decade, more than10 -20% women alive in India will need a diagnosis of cancer at some point in their lives. Last year, breast cancer killed 50,000 women in the country.

TheQuint will keep you updated with progress which scientists make in this research.