Artificial Liver' could be grown.

"In 1997 Dr Jay Vacanti grew a human ear from cartilage cells the back of a mouse, causing outrage among animal rights and pro-life groups"(BBC,2002).  This is  considered as one of the amazing invention of humans. Human ears can gets damaged due to reasons like fire, accidents, fights etc. Ears plays a vital role in our human body like any other part of the body. Having one or no ear, life of humans become miserable. It is necessary for us to have both ears. In case a human looses an ear, today it is easy to transplant from a "Vacanti mouse"(S. Kruzelnicki,2006).

Dr Vacanti is a transplant surgeon at Massachussetts General Hospital in Bostan and Jeffrey Borestein, micro engineering expert at the nearby Drabper lab are trying to grow more complex tissues. Though scientist believe that no more complex tissues can be grown than simple tissues like thin sections of knee cartilage and skin because of problems growing the blood vessel network. The "Vacanti mouse" scientists suggested that one day there is a possibility to grow a liver. According to BBC Blog, there are only around 100 people waiting for a liver transplant. On the other hand, the British Liver Trust says many of them die before they reach the list. The experts have already warned that the laboratory based research is a long way from working livers(2002).  Scientist are already working hard on the technology which can help to grow a artificial liver for the benefit of human beings.  One of the major problems of this research would be getting all the right cell growing in the right places says Linda Griffith who is a tissue engineer at MIT. The reason behind her idea is that a human liver has got around 100 million cells in just a gram of liver. As a result it will be very hard to position each cell at the right place. There is no found to keep those implants sterile and no one in fact at that point says Larry Hench, a tissue engineer at Imperial College at London. Nigel Hughes the chief executive of British Liver Trust, Told BBC News Online that if this problem is not sorted out, they experts would be stuck with lab based solution which they will not be able to use.(Thursday 25, April 2002)To conclude, It would a great miracle and achievement on the planet. On the contrary, scientist do believe that it is a project next to impossible as there are many hurdles reaching the goal. We can positively hope that scientist and experts finds a way to grow an artificial liver.  

References

BBC,(2002,April,25). Artificial liver `could be grown'. BBC News. Retreived    from        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm.       
 S.Kruszelnicki,K.(2006,June,2). Mouse with human ear. ABC sceince. Retreived from       http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/06/02/1644154.htm.