The operation in progress (left). Synthetic Windpipe section (right).
A man with tracheal cancer has recently had a windpipe transplant with one made from his own stem cells.
The surgery was performed on June 9th at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Paolo Macchiarini said that this "is the first synthetic tissue engineered windpipe that has been successfully transplanted. Because the cells used to regenerate the trachea were the patient's own, there has been no rejection of the transplant and the patient is not taking (anti-rejection) drugs." The patient has been released today, 7/8/2011.
This is the first attempt at implanting a man made organ. First a nanocomposite tracheal scaffold was built by Alexander Seifalian from the University College London. Harvard Bioscience created a bioreactor that the scaffold was placed in for two days as the patients cells were grown across the framework. Macchiarini said that several surgeries of a similar nature are planned by the end of 2011.
The ease of growth and acceptance of implantation is proof that more research needs to be done on stem cells. A ban on stem cell research was lifted by President Obama back in June of 2009. Prior to then, former president Bush limited research due to his belief that he was defending human life (in reference to embryo stem cells).
With this achievement, are you for stem cell research? Or are you leaning towards the ban? And why either way?
Eavesdropper
