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Sweden has performed the first trachea transplant grown from stem cells
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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In Sweden, a 36-year-old man with tracheal cancer received a new trachea made in a lab from his own stem cells, the first successful attempt of its kind, the Associated Press reports.
The operation was performed by doctors at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 9. Today, the patient is almost completely healthy and will be discharged from the hospital.
Doctors say that before the operation the patient was in the last stage of the disease, when the tumor practically blocked his trachea, and his only chance was to grow an artificial organ, since a suitable trachea donor was not found.
An international team of doctors led by Professor Paolo Macchiarini built a trachea frame and a bioreactor into which the patient's stem cells were placed. The new cells grew on the frame and formed a trachea two days before the transplant. The big advantage of this approach is that the artificial organ is grown from the patient's own cells, so it does not initially cause rejection.
Previously, similar surgeries have used a donor trachea along with the patient’s stem cells. A few years ago, Professor Macchiarini and others used stem cells from a Colombian man’s bone marrow to grow millions of epithelial cartilage cells to repair the man’s trachea, which had been damaged by years of tuberculosis. Belgian doctors once placed a donor trachea in a patient’s arm to grow new tissue before implanting it in her throat. In both cases, because the patient’s own cells were used to coat the donor organ, neither of them needed to take drugs to prevent rejection of the new organs.
Experts say it is possible to grow simple organs such as a trachea or oesophagus, but it will take years for scientists to be able to create more complex body parts such as a kidney or heart in the lab.
The plastic polymer used to make the artificial trachea's frame was previously used in tear ducts and blood vessels. It has a spongy surface that allows new cells to grow faster.
Doctors believe that such artificial organs will be in great demand in the near future for the treatment of patients with trachea and throat cancer, since these types of cancer are usually diagnosed at a fairly late stage, and there are very few effective ways to treat them. Several more such transplants are planned in Sweden by the end of the year, including one to a child.
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