Kaitlyne McNamara no longer worries about feeling different at school. The 16-year-old was born with spina bifida, a congenital birth defect that stunts brain and spinal cord development. The disease left her with a crippling jumble of nerves jutting out from the base of her spine.
Kaitlyne had dozens of major surgeries as a child, but then another problem surfaced: Her bladder was not functioning properly.
Scientists grew new bladders from the patients' own cells, which were then transplanted back into the patients' bodies.
Illustration: Cells from a patient's bladder are grown in a Petri dish then layered onto a bladder-shaped mold. –CNN
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CNN (04/05/06)