Live to 100 plus with brand new body parts made to last!

Soon people over 50 will be able to receive brand new body parts to replace those that are wearing out says a report in the Guardian on the health of older people.

A recent report in the Lancet has said that over half of all babies born in the wealthier nations will live to be 100. It means that older people will need to be fitter and healthier if they are to enjoy the second part of their lives.

Fortunately, there is an ongoing research project at the University of Leeds conducted by the UK's biggest bioengineering unit, the world leader in artificial joint replacement research. Work is being carried out on new hip and knee joints designed to last for 50 years rather than the customary 20. Older people will be able to have new cartilage in their knees as well as a replacement knee cap as well a new heart valve and patches on their arteries. The wonderful breakthrough is that the body will not reject the new parts with the immune system will recognise them as belonging to the body.

There has been a concerted effort from industry, research councils and charities to fund the research with the result that £50 million is now available. Scientists and engineers throughout the UK are putting their heads together to design and produce the new exciting body parts.

Professor Eileen Ingham who is deputy director of Leeds' Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering said: "None of us is getting any younger. These advanced therapies will be available to help people, but only if we can take these world-class ideas and turn them into tangible products. The UK has had a historical inability to take innovations and translate them into best practices, but we do have some really good science."

The professor also spoke of the new heart valves designed to last a lifetime and not be rejected by the body. This is because they undergo a series of washes with buffers, detergents and enymes to remove the living cells and remnants of the cell membranes she said. This eliminates all foreign DNA that could result in them being rejected.

The residual scaffold is implanted by the surgeon and the patient's body does the rest of the work by saturating the valves with cells which work from day one to prevent rejection.

The process has been so far successful with 40 patients from the first clinical trial in Brazil in 2005 experiencing no bodily rejection of the new valves.

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