PET PET
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
Become a Friend Donate
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • People
    • Press Office
    • Our History
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Friend of PET
    • Volunteer
    • Campaigns
    • Writing Scheme
    • Partnership and Sponsorship
    • Advertise with Us
  • Donate
    • Become a Friend of PET
  • BioNews
    • News
    • Comment
    • Reviews
    • Elsewhere
    • Topics
    • Glossary
    • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Previous Events
  • Engagement
    • Policy and Projects
      • Resources
    • Education
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements
PETBioNewsNewsFirst synthetic windpipe transplant is a success

BioNews

First synthetic windpipe transplant is a success

Published 15 November 2012 posted in News and appears in BioNews 615

Author

Dr Rebecca Robey

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).

Surgeons have successfully transplanted a synthetic organ into a human for the first time. In a groundbreaking operation, a cancer patient's windpipe was replaced with an artificial replica that had been grown using his own stem cells....

Surgeons have successfully transplanted a synthetic organ into a human for the first time. In a groundbreaking operation, a cancer patient's windpipe was replaced with an artificial replica that had been grown using his own stem cells.

An international team of doctors and scientists created the artificial windpipe without using any tissue from an organ donor. As well as cutting waiting times for transplants, this technique will be important in cases where a suitable donor can't be found, which can be a particular problem for children. Furthermore, the use of the patient's own stem cells meant there was no risk of it being rejected, and he did not need to take immunosuppressive drugs.

The 36-year-old man had an aggressive tumour that had not responded to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and it was inhibiting his breathing. With no suitable donor organ available the medical team decided to try the new technology. 'He was condemned to die', Professor Paolo Macchiarini, the lead surgeon, told the Wall Street Journal, only a month after the 12-hour operation. 'We now plan to discharge him'.

Professor Macchiarini, who works at the Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden, had previously carried out similar procedures, but always using the windpipe of an organ donor coated with the patient's stem cells. In this case, a 3D scan was taken of the patient's windpipe and a team of scientists at University College London (UCL) used the images to build an identical 'scaffold' out of a specially designed material called a nanocomposite polymer.

Stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow were dripped onto the scaffold in a device developed by researchers at Harvard Bioscience Inc., USA. After two days these cells had populated the entire scaffold structure, and were then treated with chemicals to encourage them to form the right types of tissue. A similar technique has also been used to grow bladder tissue for use in reconstructive surgery.

Professor Alexander Seifalian, who led the research team at UCL said: 'What makes this procedure different is it's the first time that a wholly engineered synthetic windpipe has been made and successfully transplanted, making it an important milestone for regenerative medicine. We expect there to be many more exciting applications for the novel polymers we have developed'.

Remarkably, the whole process only took a few days. Professor Macchiarini commented: 'Thanks to nanotechnology, this new branch of regenerative medicine, we are now able to produce a custom-made windpipe within two days or one week… The beauty of it is you have it immediately. There is no delay'.

Related Articles

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
7 November 2017 • 2 minutes read

World's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant is a success

by Adam Fletcher

A Colombian woman has become the world's first recipient of a windpipe grown in part from her own cells. Published in the Lancet journal last week, the team of surgeons from Spain, the UK and Italy, orchestrated the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant. Professor Paolo Macchiarini...

Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family entwined in coils of DNA (based on the figure of Laocoön from Greek and Roman mythology).
News
15 February 2016 • 3 minutes read

Stem-cell controversy unfolds in Sweden

by Kirsty Oswald

The world-renowned Karolinska Institute is at the centre of a scandal surrounding the conduct of stem-cell surgeon Paulo Macchiarini...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
11 April 2014 • 2 minutes read

The London lab growing body parts using patients' stem cells

by Dr Nikki Davis

A lab in London where scientists grow human noses and windpipes has opened its doors to the press...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
22 April 2013 • 2 minutes read

Stem cells given a good nanokicking

by Dr Rachael Panizzo

Human stem cells have been converted into bone cells using a technique called 'nanokicking'...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
6 March 2013 • 1 minute read

Girl receives first ever transplant of stem cell-treated vein

by Dr Lucy Freem

A ten-year-old Swedish girl has become the first recipient of a donor vein treated with a patient's own stem cells...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
Reviews
22 November 2012 • 2 minutes read

TV Review: Bang Goes the Theory

by Daniel Malynn

Presenter Liz Bonnin investigates stem cells, and their pioneering use in organ donation. Bonnin's introduction the segment covers briefly, but accurately, the 30 years worth of history of stem cell research, and the controversy around embryonic stem cell research...

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
1 November 2012 • 2 minutes read

Stem cell setback: Reprogrammed stem cells may induce immune response

by Dr Rebecca Robey

IPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells from mice can be recognised by their own immune system and destroyed, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found...

Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
CC BY 4.0
Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.
News
29 October 2012 • 1 minute read

Stem cells used to create 'fetal kidneys'

by Dr Rosie Morley

Scientists at Edinburgh University have grown kidney structures in the laboratory in a step they hope will lead to organs being grown for transplant patients from their own stem cells...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
13 August 2010 • 2 minutes read

Stem cell surgery a success, say UK doctors

by Marianne Kennedy

An 11-year-old boy has returned home after becoming the first child to undergo a pioneering surgery which used his own stem cells to rebuild his windpipe. The operation, which took place in March this year at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, has been hailed as 'a success'...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
CC BY 4.0
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).
News
22 March 2010 • 1 minute read

Stem cells used for pioneering windpipe transplant

by Dr Vivienne Raper

A UK child has become the world's first to receive a full windpipe transplant using an organ built from his own stem cells...

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

« Sperm, smoking, screening and more

Data-Label The UK's Leading Supplier Of Medical Labels & Asset Labels

RetiringDentist.co.uk The UK's Leading M&A Company.
easyfundraising
amazon

This month in BioNews

  • Popular
  • Recent
13 June 2022 • 2 minutes read

Drop in diversity of blood stem cells leads to old-age health issues

6 July 2022 • 1 minute read

Frozen embryo transfers linked to high blood pressure in pregnancy

5 July 2022 • 1 minute read

Anorexia in pregnancy linked to increased risk of complications

5 July 2022 • 2 minutes read

Pregnancy after breast cancer treatment does not increase risk of recurrence

5 July 2022 • 1 minute read

No difference between fresh and frozen sperm for IUI

4 July 2022 • 2 minutes read

Shorter IVF protocol reduces risk of OHSS

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856

Subscribe to BioNews and other PET updates for free.

Subscribe
PET PET

PET is an independent charity that improves choices for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Wellcome
Website redevelopment supported by Wellcome.

Navigation

  • About Us
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • BioNews
  • Events
  • Engagement
  • Jobs & Opportunities
  • Contact Us

BioNews

  • News
  • Comment
  • Reviews
  • Elsewhere
  • Topics
  • Glossary
  • Newsletters

Other

  • My Account
  • Subscribe

Website by Impact Media Impact Media

  • Privacy Statement
  • Advertising Policy
  • Thanks and Acknowledgements

© 1992 - 2022 Progress Educational Trust. All rights reserved.

Limited company registered in England and Wales no 07405980 • Registered charity no 1139856