In a new study that depicts a closer-to-reality move for bioengineered organs, scientists have reported the successful implant of lab-engineered lung tissue into living rats. As per the scientists, the `fully functional' tissue is capable of performing the key role of the lungs - that of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.

For the study, published in the June 25 issue of Science, the scientists - led by a Yale University team - made use of a chemical treatment for removing all existing cells from adult rat lungs. The structure of the airways and vascular system were left intact by the scientists, to subsequently serve as a kind of "scaffold" for facilitating the growth of new lung cells.

The lungs cells were later cultured with the help of a bioreactor that can mimic the fetal lung environment. The engineered cells were then repopulated in the "decellularized" rat lung for short intervals of 45 to 120 minutes. The scientists observed that the new tissue perfectly performed the gas-exchange function of natural lungs.

According to the researchers, the study underlines the hope for replication of a similar feat in the humans one day; thereby improving the chances of survival of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.

However, the study's author Thomas Petersen, a postdoctoral associate at Yale University, added that it would probably take around two decades to accomplish the feat in humans.