Today’s interesting fact has to do with the urine.

Many people will tell you that urine is sterile and that nothing lives in it.

Some survivalists have suggested that if you get wounded away from possible medical treatment you should urinate on the wound to clean it.

As odd as this seems to most, this practice has allegedly assisted in the healing process.

But urine isn't quite a sterile as most people think.

Hidden within the golden fluid, are scattered stem cells, released by the body and excreted with the rest of the liquid.

These cells have been shown to be very important for some, in a different way than might have been expected.

Medical Scientists have taken these cells and seeded a collagen framework, to create ureters, urethras, bladders and even complete kidneys.

These new ureters, urethras and bladders, created by the patient's own stem cells, collected from their urine, have been successfully used to replace defective organs.

Whole kidneys have been successfully implanted into test animals and we are likely to hear about whole kidneys in the near future.

This would be a boon to anyone with diseased kidneys, where the patient does not have a genetic disease that would suggest not using the patients stem cells, then kidney transplants may become easier, and done with the patients own cells.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Urine and stem cells.

Recently it was discovered that while urine is for the most part sterile, it also contains a certain number of stem cells floating in the fluid.

These seem to be shed into the urine by the body.

Medical Scientists have extracted these stem cells, and by using a scaffold of collagen from a pig urethra which had all cells removed, seeded the scaffolding with these stem cells and created a new urethra that has been successfully transplanted back into the urine doner animals.

This means that in the near future, when individuals have lost a urethra through accident or disease, they may have a new one created, from their own stem cells, thereby removing any possibility of tissue rejection.

It has been suggested by some researchers, that the practice of drinking ones own urine, might help the individual, by placing these stem cells back into the body, where they might migrate to and replace tissues that are damaged.

They also say the practice of by some cultures, to urinate on wounds to promote healing, may have more to do with these stem cells, and less to the supposed sterility of said urine.

No testing on either of these suggestions has been done to date, and it is not at this time recommended.