In Sweden, for the first time, a trachea transplantation, stemmed from stem cells
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In Sweden, a 36-year-old man with a tracheal cancer, doctors transplanted a new trachea created in the laboratory from his own stem cells. This was the first successful attempt of this kind, reports the Associated Press.
The operation was performed by doctors from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 9th. Today the patient is almost completely healthy and will be discharged from the hospital.
Doctors say that before the operation the patient was at the last stage of the disease, when the tumor practically clogged his trachea, and his only chance was growing an artificial organ, because a suitable donor of the trachea was not found.
An international team of doctors led by Professor Paolo Macchiarini built a trachea skeleton and a bioreactor into which the patient's stem cells were placed. New cells grew on a frame and formed a trachea two days before transplantation. A big plus of this approach is that the artificial organ is grown from the human cells, which is then transplanted, so it does not initially cause rejection.
Previously, in these operations, the donor's trachea was used together with the stem cells of the patient. A few years ago, Professor Macchiarini and other specialists used the stem cells of the bone marrow of a Colombian to grow for him millions of epithelial cartilage cells, with the help of which the trachea of a man damaged by perennial tuberculosis was restored. Belgian doctors once placed a donor trachea in the patient's hand to build up a new tissue before implanting the trachea into her throat. In both cases, due to the fact that the patient's own cells were used to cover the donor organ, none of them needed to take drugs that prevent the rejection of new organs.
Experts say that it is artificially possible to grow simple organs such as the trachea or esophagus, but it will take years for scientists to create more complex parts of the body, such as the kidney or heart, in the laboratory.
The plastic polymer, from which the skeleton was made for an artificial trachea, was previously used in lacrimal canals and blood vessels. It has a spongy surface on which new cells grow quickly.
Doctors believe that such artificial organs will be very in demand in the near future for the treatment of patients with cancer of the trachea and throat, tk. These cancers are usually diagnosed at a fairly late stage, and there are very few effective methods for treating them. Until the end of the year in Sweden, it is planned to conduct several more such transplantations, incl. One child.
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