Professor Paolo Macchiarini of the Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet performs an operation at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Stockholm. The patient underwent surgery, during which he was given a new trachea (windpipe) made from a synthetic scaffold seeded with his own stem cells. The 36-year-old man is well on the way to full recovery from the world's first successful synthetic organ transplant.
Researchers have previously used virtually identical techniques to produce synthetic blood vessels, urethras and bladders. The common denominator in all of those is that the synthetic organs are basically hollow tubes or, in the case of the bladder, a hollow sphere. They may have to have the ability to stretch or shrink slightly in response to natural conditions, but they really have no other function.
The 36-year-old Eritrean geology student at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik had suffered from an advanced case of tracheal cancer, and tumors were threatening to block his windpipe and choke off his supply of oxygen before the artificial trachea was implanted June 9. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini of Karolinska University Hospital decided there was no time to wait for a donor trachea, so he assembled a team to build one. Since the artificial trachea was made with Beyene's own cells, he hasn't needed anti-rejection drugs that would have suppressed his immune system and made him vulnerable to other infections. He is also cancer-free.
Instead of using a donor trachea for the scaffold, materials scientist Alexander Seifalian of University College London built one in a lab. The base was a glass tube with dimensions obtained from three-dimensional images of Beyene's trachea. Then Seifalian used a medical plastic called polyethylene glycol to build a scaffold around it. The plastic is very porous, allowing the stem cells to grow into it. The scientists put hormones in the nutrient soup to induce the stem cells to change into the cells normally found in the lining and exterior of a trachea. After two days in the bioreactor, the trachea was implanted in Beyene, where the cells continued to grow and proliferate. The whole process took less than a week.
The operation marks another step forward for the field of regenerative medicine and "further validates the fact that these technologies may have a role in treating larger numbers of patients in the future," said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Macchiarini said the team would perform three more procedures before the end of the year, two on adults from the United States and one on a 9-month-old from North Korea who was born without a trachea.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-trac…
Researchers have previously used virtually identical techniques to produce synthetic blood vessels, urethras and bladders. The common denominator in all of those is that the synthetic organs are basically hollow tubes or, in the case of the bladder, a hollow sphere. They may have to have the ability to stretch or shrink slightly in response to natural conditions, but they really have no other function.
The 36-year-old Eritrean geology student at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik had suffered from an advanced case of tracheal cancer, and tumors were threatening to block his windpipe and choke off his supply of oxygen before the artificial trachea was implanted June 9. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini of Karolinska University Hospital decided there was no time to wait for a donor trachea, so he assembled a team to build one. Since the artificial trachea was made with Beyene's own cells, he hasn't needed anti-rejection drugs that would have suppressed his immune system and made him vulnerable to other infections. He is also cancer-free.
Instead of using a donor trachea for the scaffold, materials scientist Alexander Seifalian of University College London built one in a lab. The base was a glass tube with dimensions obtained from three-dimensional images of Beyene's trachea. Then Seifalian used a medical plastic called polyethylene glycol to build a scaffold around it. The plastic is very porous, allowing the stem cells to grow into it. The scientists put hormones in the nutrient soup to induce the stem cells to change into the cells normally found in the lining and exterior of a trachea. After two days in the bioreactor, the trachea was implanted in Beyene, where the cells continued to grow and proliferate. The whole process took less than a week.
The operation marks another step forward for the field of regenerative medicine and "further validates the fact that these technologies may have a role in treating larger numbers of patients in the future," said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Macchiarini said the team would perform three more procedures before the end of the year, two on adults from the United States and one on a 9-month-old from North Korea who was born without a trachea.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-trac…
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Not yet.
They are having trouble making simple tissues right now to try and use them for cancer.
Someday when they master making tissues, they would be able to make complex organs. But then ethical issues would come about.
They are having trouble making simple tissues right now to try and use them for cancer.
Someday when they master making tissues, they would be able to make complex organs. But then ethical issues would come about.
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Not yet. Maybe someday.