Surgeons Carry Out First Synthetic Windpipe Transplant
33 replies, posted
Source: [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14047670[/url]
[quote]Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient.
Crucially, the technique does not need a donor, and there is no risk of the organ being rejected. The surgeons stress a windpipe can also be made within days.
The 36-year-old cancer patient is doing well a month after the operation.
Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery, which took place at the Karolinska University Hospital.
In an interview with the BBC, he said he now hopes to use the technique to treat a nine-month-old child in Korea who was born with a malformed windpipe or trachea.
Professor Macchiarini already has 10 other windpipe transplants under his belt - most notably the world's first tissue-engineered tracheal transplant in 2008 on 30-year-old Spanish woman Claudia Costillo - but all required a donor.
Indistinguishable
The key to the latest technique is modelling a structure or scaffold that is an exact replica of the patient's own windpipe, removing the need for a donor organ.
To do this he enlisted the help of UK experts were given 3D scans of the 36-year-old African patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene. The geology student currently lives in Iceland where he is studying for a PhD.
Using these images, the scientists at University College London were able to craft a perfect copy of Mr Beyene's trachea and two main bronchi out of glass.
They then coated this was then flown to Sweden and soaked in a solution of stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow.
After two days, the millions of holes in the porous windpipe had been seeded with the patient' own tissue.
Dr Alex Seifalian and his team used this fragile structure to create a replacement for the patient, whose own windpipe was ravaged by an inoperable tumour.
Despite aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the cancer had grown to the size of a golf ball and was blocking his breathing. Without a transplant he would have died.
During a 12-hour operation Professor Macchiarini removed all of the tumour and the diseased windpipe and replaced it with the tailor-made replica.
The bone marrow cells and lining cells taken from his nose, which were also implanted during the operation, are able to divide and grow, turning the inert windpipe scaffold into an organ indistinguishable from a normal healthy one.
And, importantly, Mr Beyene's body will accept it as its own, meaning he will not need to take the strong anti-rejection drugs that other transplant patients have to.
Professor Macchiarini said this was the real breakthrough.
"Thanks to nanotechnology, this new branch of regenerative medicine, we are now able to produce a custom-made windpipe within two days or one week.
"This is a synthetic windpipe. The beauty of this is you can have it immediately. There is no delay. This technique does not rely on a human donation."
He said many other organs could be repaired or replaced in the same way.
A month on from his operation, Mr Beyene is still looking weak, but well.
Sitting up in his hospital bed, he said: "I was very scared, very scared about the operation. But it was live or die."
He says he is looking forward to getting back to Iceland to finish his studies and then returning to his home in Eritrea where he will be reunited with his wife and young family, and meet his new three-month-old child.
He says he is eternally grateful to the medical team that has saved his life. [/quote]
Yay for science!
I swear I read something like this, or saw something like this on the news a long time ago. Maybe last year, or the year before.
I remember it being on a really young kid, too. Like a 9 year old boy or something.
I could be mistaken, though.
[QUOTE=sltungle;30966660]I swear I read something like this, or saw something like this on the news a long time ago. Maybe last year, or the year before.
I remember it being on a really young kid, too. Like a 9 year old boy or something.
I could be mistaken, though.[/QUOTE]I think it was some part of a heart, like a valve or something.
I was almost hoping this would've failed so I could've made a pun like 'that blows'.
Still though, an almost fully synthetic organ which doesn't require a donor and has no chance of being rejected by its host? If I had a hat, I would take it off.
I think this was a youtube video someone posted in another news article somewhere. It explained the process of growing a new beating heart or lung/esophagus. Some PBS documentary. Still, fuckin' awesome!
And once again science proves that it can make diseases it's bitch.
[QUOTE=Strongbad;30967074]And once again science proves that it can make diseases it's bitch.[/QUOTE]Yep. Right now there are looking into a cancer treatment that involves UV light, and making medicine react to it.
So when can we start implanting windpipes strong enough to prevent someone from being choked to death?
[quote]Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient.[/quote]
So apparently step cells are just fucking magic and smearing them on anything makes it wonderful
Why where we not funding this?!
[QUOTE=DanRatherman;30969333]So apparently ste[B]m[/B] cells are just fucking magic and smearing them on anything makes it wonderful
Why where we not funding this?![/QUOTE]
Because the USA is stupid. I hate where I live.
[QUOTE=DanRatherman;30969333]So apparently step cells are just fucking magic and smearing them on anything makes it wonderful
Why where we not funding this?![/QUOTE]
Because God hates Science!
I bet that operation was a breath-taking experience.
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;30968274]So when can we start implanting windpipes strong enough to prevent someone from being choked to death?[/QUOTE]
Never, choking occors when a forign object is lodged in the trachea blocking the air flow.
[QUOTE=Acesarge;30969847]Never, choking occors when a forign object is lodged in the trachea blocking the air flow.[/QUOTE]
He said "being choked to death", not choking to death on things. I'm sure he meant something like being strangled to death by another person.
[QUOTE=Murkat;30970104]He said "being choked to death", not choking to death on things. I'm sure he meant something like being strangled to death by another person.[/QUOTE]You can't have a solid windpipe, your neck won't bend up and down.
so that hole in is throat guy can get a replacement throat? awesome :v:
The next step.
[video=youtube;lAI5rLnnCBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAI5rLnnCBE[/video]
[QUOTE=DanRatherman;30969333]So apparently step cells are just fucking magic and smearing them on anything makes it wonderful
Why where we not funding this?![/QUOTE]
[I]Embryonic[/I] stem cells are the ones everyone's in an uproar about. Stem cells from other sources (i.e. umbilical cord) are fair game. I'm not sure exactly what kind of stem cells were used in this operation, but it does say that they belonged to the guy so they weren't embryonic.
[QUOTE=Corndog Ninja;30979411][I]Embryonic[/I] stem cells are the ones everyone's in an uproar about. Stem cells from other sources (i.e. umbilical cord) are fair game. I'm not sure exactly what kind of stem cells were used in this operation, but it does say that they belonged to the guy so they weren't embryonic.[/QUOTE]
They got them from his bone marrow, where stem cells are turned into red blood cells.
[quote]... soaked in a solution of stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow.[/quote]
They've found a shit ton of different stem cells around the body when embryonic cells were off limits. If I recall, they even turned a skin cell back into a stem cell. Science is fucking insane.
building a human brain using this method would be absolutely nuts
Now they just need to find a way to produce it in industrial scale quantities.
It boggles my mind to think what medical technology we'll have 40 years from now.
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;30966882]I was almost hoping this would've failed so I could've made a pun like 'that blows'.
Still though, an almost fully synthetic organ which doesn't require a donor and has no chance of being rejected by its host? If I had a hat, I would take it off.[/QUOTE]
If I had a hat, I would eat it...
ok, only if it was an edible hat, but still.
[QUOTE=Kurtzund;30981834]It boggles my mind to think what medical technology we'll have 40 years from now.[/QUOTE]Indeed. Technology gives me a stiffy.
[QUOTE=faze;30986209]Indeed. Technology gives me a stiffy.[/QUOTE]
Whatever floats your boat, I guess. All technology does is scare me a bit. Well, not technology per se but the rate at which it progresses.
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;30988498]Whatever floats your boat, I guess. All technology does is scare me a bit. Well, not technology per se but the rate at which it progresses.[/QUOTE]
You can't get a stiffy without a little fear.
Right?
[QUOTE=Miskav;30999210]You can't get a stiffy without a little fear.
Right?[/QUOTE]
Adrenaline kills stiffies.
[QUOTE=Miskav;30999210]You can't get a stiffy without a little fear.
Right?[/QUOTE]
Precisely. A fearection is the only way I can get it up these days. Let me tell you, playing through Amnesia was hard as fuck, in multiple ways.
[QUOTE=OpethRockr55;30980343]They got them from his bone marrow, where stem cells are turned into red blood cells.
They've found a shit ton of different stem cells around the body when embryonic cells were off limits. If I recall, they even turned a skin cell back into a stem cell. Science is fucking insane.[/QUOTE]
The only problem is that right now embryonic stem cells are the most useful because they can differentiate much better than adult stem cells.
i still want to put my brain in a robot body
have the strength of five gorillas
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