A study reported in The Lancet makes it pretty clear that growing your own spare parts may be a real possibility in the near future!

Growing technology is allowing science to put stem cells hard at work growing those hip and knee joints that we’re wearing out as we age.

In a decade or so, people now clamoring for metal and ceramic replacement joints may instead be able to have a fully functional biological replacement — a joint grown within their own bodies to their specific physiology.

To date, researchers have successfully grown replacement shoulder joints in rabbits, using an implanted biological “scaffold” upon which new cartilage developed, according to a study reported in The Lancet.