Historic Registry of artificial trachea wrapped stem cells

Written by Sandeep Nehra

An international team of surgeons has successfully completed the first transplant of a global artificial trachea covered with stem cells, said on Thursday the Swedish hospital where this innovative operation was performed.

June 9, a 36 year old man, suffering from cancer of the trachea at an advanced stage, received a new wind-pipe made of a synthetic structure and covered by its own stem cells, said in a statement the ‘Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, a suburb of Stockholm.

This type of regenerative medicine could, according to the hospital, revolutionizing the field of tracheal grafts, making them much more accessible.

“Transplants windpipe designed with a synthetic structure combined with stem cells from the patient, elevated to standard procedure, means that patients no longer have to wait for a compatible organ donor,” he said.

This would be particularly beneficial for children, “because the donor trachea is lower than that for adult patients,” he said, stressing that a quick operation would offer patients a better chance of healing.

The surgical team was led by Professor Paolo Macciarini Karolinska and included in its ranks Seifalian Professor Alexander, University College London, who designed and manufactured the artificial windpipe.

At the same time, researchers from Harvard Bioscience built a bioreactor used to implement specific stem cells of the patient on the structure. The cells were able to grow on the windpipe synthetic for two days before the transplant.

“As the cells used to regenerate the trachea were those of the patient, there was no graft rejection and the patient is not taking immunosuppressive drugs,” said the hospital, adding that the man was “well , on the road to a cure, and it would be allowed to leave the hospital tomorrow (Friday). ”

Synthetic trachea was used as a last resort, according to the team, because, despite radiotherapy, the patient’s tumor had grown so large that it threatened to completely block the windpipe, and that n ‘ there was no suitable donor.

Macciarini had already successfully designed tracheal transplants with stem cells, but in these cases, the trachea were taken from donors and then covered stem cell patients.