Bo was born on 6/3/07 with the rare congenital disorder currently known as Microvillous (Microvillus) Inclusion Disease. It took 2 hospitals and 5 weeks to diagnose. He became the 61st baby in the US to receive Omegaven. His nutrition is 100% TPN/Omegaven. We believe there will be a cure for this in our lifetime, and that a transplant is NOT the best option for this disease. This is our story.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Dog Study (mucosal transplant) and, Pig (stomach and intestine)
Correcting myself, Stelzner's group recently published a paper where dog's were the animal model for curing something like MID (problems with the mucosa), "Intestinal Stem Cell Organoid Transplantation Generates Neomucosa in Dogs." They had cured rats with malabsorption with this experimental design several years ago, and just published this dog study. The next step might be pigs, unless they jumped right into people, which they can now do, since Lgr5 was finally identified as the human intestinal stem cell (these other animal models have well established intestinal stem cell population).
The pig study was a triumph for group effort from Mass Gen and UCLA, "Tissue-Engineered Small Intestine and Stomach Form from Autologous Tissue in a Preclinical Large Animal Model." Basically, mashed up intestinal cells, schmeared this paste onto a bioscaffold they stuck into the pigs' belly cavity, and ta-da! Stomach and intestines formed, including muscle and nerve structure.
The pig study was a triumph for group effort from Mass Gen and UCLA, "Tissue-Engineered Small Intestine and Stomach Form from Autologous Tissue in a Preclinical Large Animal Model." Basically, mashed up intestinal cells, schmeared this paste onto a bioscaffold they stuck into the pigs' belly cavity, and ta-da! Stomach and intestines formed, including muscle and nerve structure.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bo and Sam!

This is a pic from our visit with the O'Connors in Chicago a few weeks ago. We had a great long weekend in Chicago with Tio Ren and Auntie Jennie, and the O'Connors! We spent Saturday morning at the Museum of Science and Industry. Most of it in the Great Train Exhibit. We had scheduled this weekend to go to Chicago in the hopes of crashing Digestive Disease Week at McCormick Place, but I wasn't registered, and our luck getting a $25 guest pass ran out with our only possible host, the Dutch grad student sent to present their MID genetics work. While I'm grateful that she was gracious enough to answer my email, my emotions cycled from bummed, to angry, to dismissive, back to mad. Oh well. We had a great time catching up, sharing tips and tricks for care, playing with toy trains, looking at toy trains, and impersonating trains. As a famous person once wrote, "trains=toddler crack."
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