Science can perform a little wonderful , heartstring-tugging things. Take this for instance: surgeons have triumphantly performed the primary ever synthetic organ transplant. Cancer-stricken Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene was the grateful recipient of this life-saving surgical breakthrough, performed by Prof. Paolo Macchiarini at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden. The revolutionary operation comes with a nil rejection rate and requires no donor — a big relief for those stuck on lengthy waiting lists. Using a 3D scan of Beyene’s windpipe, scientists at University College London crafted a highly-porous nanocomposite tracheal scaffold replica and covered it in stem cells harvested from his bone marrow. Within two days, the stem cells had worked their magic, weaving a brand spanking new transplantable facsimile which is “indistinguishable from an ordinary healthy one.” And because the procedure uses no foreign-born tissues, patients can await an entire-recovery sans mandatory immunosuppressive drugs, an immense plus for post-op quality of life. With the surgery successful, Prof. Macchiarini’s moving directly to a better patient in need — this time, a nine-month-old Korean baby with a malformed trachea. Doctors — saving lives and warming hearts. Press release of the medically wondrous kind after the break.
[PRESS RELEASE 2011-07-07] For the 1st time in history, a patient have been given a brand new trachea created from a man-made scaffold seeded along with his own stem cells.
The patient, a 36-year old man, is easily so as to full recovery and should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. The operation was performed on June 9th 2011 at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Stockholm, by professor Paolo Macchiarini, of Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet, and co-workers. Professor Macchiarini led a world team including professor Alexander Seifalian from the UCL (University College London, UK) who designed and built the nanocomposite tracheal scaffold and Harvard Bioscience (Boston, USA) who produced a specifically designed bioreactor used to seed the scaffold with the patient´s own stem cells. The cells were grown at the scaffold contained in the bioreactor for 2 days before transplantation to the patient. As the cells used to regenerate the trachea were the patient’s own, there was no rejection of the transplant and the patient isn’t taking immunosuppressive drugs.
The patient were laid low with late stage tracheal cancer. Despite maximum treatment with radiation therapy, the tumor had reached approximately 6 cm in length and was extending to the key bronchus. It was progressing and almost completely blocked the trachea. Since no suitable donor windpipe was available, the transplantation of the artificial tissue engineered trachea was performed because the last possible option for the patient, referred by professor Tomas Gudbjartsson of Landspitali University Hospital (Reykjavik, Iceland) who was also portion of the surgical team.
The successful transplantation of tissue engineered synthetic organs, often called regenerative medicine, could open new and extremely promising therapeutic possibilities for the thousands of patients that suffer from tracheal cancer or other conditions that destroy, block or constrict the airway. Professor Macchiarini has previously performed successful transplants of tissue engineered tracheas, but on those occasions the tracheas used were taken from organ donors after which reseeded with the patient’s own stem cells.
Transplantations of tissue engineered windpipes with synthetic scaffolds together with the patient’s own stem cells as a regular procedure, signifies that patients do not need to attend for an appropriate donor organ. This may be a considerable benefit for patients since they might make the most of earlier surgery and feature a better chance of cure. As well as treating adult patients; tissue engineered synthetic trachea transplants would, not least, be of significant value for kids, because the availability of donor tracheas is way below for adult patients.
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