Lab-grown penis helps rabbits mate ... like rabbits

* Functioning penises grown from animals' own cells

* Approach could work for other organs

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Researchers have engineered artificial penises in rabbits, using cells from the animals, who then used their new organs to father baby rabbits.

The work takes scientists closer to making other complex solid organs such as livers using a patient's own cells, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

It provides a tailor-made transplant, said Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who led the study.

"Once the tissue is there, the body recognizes the tissue as its own," Atala said in a telephone interview.

Atala focused on the penis because he is a pediatric urologist, who has specialized for years in disorders and congenital defects of the bladder and sexual organs.

"That was the inspiration for this work. We are seeing babies born with deficient genitalia all the time. There are no good options," Atala said.