hard to swallow ...
A man says he is turning into his wife after receiving one of her kidneys. Lynda Gammons, of Lincolnshire, UK donated one of her kidneys to her husband Ian when he became ill with nephrotic syndrome.
Apparently, before the transplant Mr Gammons (somewhat stereotypically) hated cooking, shopping and gardening. Since the operation he says that he enjoys all the above pastimes and has even begun to share his wife's love of dogs, an animal he previously despised.
'It sounds absolutely ridiculous but I think I've inherited some of Lynda's personality traits since I got her kidney,' Gammons said.
'I've started to enjoy cooking quite a lot - particularly baking - which I was never interested in before. I love making scones and cakes and stuff like that. My daughters tell me that they are very good. I never liked shopping. But since the transplant I like going round the shops and looking for bargains,' he added.
Mrs Gammons said: 'I noticed it after a few months. He said something and it just struck me, that he said exactly what I would have said.'
Whether the couple's suspicions are true is, of course, very hard to prove. Many scientists are sceptical that transplant patients can inherit character traits from the donor known as 'cellular memory' - the notion that living cells 'memorise' and recall characteristics of the previous body.
On a more serious, but nevertheless optimistic note, it has been reported that a team of British scientists have grown the world's first artificial liver from stem cells. Newcastle University researchers created the tissue from blood taken from babies' umbilical cord, and the technique that created the 'mini-liver', the size of a one pence piece, will be developed to create a full-size functioning liver.
The breakthrough could one day provide entire organs for transplant.