In a path breaking surgery, surgeons have used a 10 year old boy’s stem cells to rebuild his windpipe, giving him a new lease of life.
The boy was born with a windpipe that was 1mm across – too narrow for him to be able to breathe unaided. He had one operation early in life to widen the windpipe with a metal scaffold which worked well for a year but then it pierced a major blood vessel causing massive bleeding. Through this breakthrough technology, surgeons coated a denuded donated windpipe with the boys own stem cells, a few hours prior to surgery. These stem cells were chemically “programmed” to turn into the appropriate tissues while inside his body.
The procedure involved selecting a dead donor from a shortlist of three – a 30-year-old Italian woman. Later, her trachea was removed, and stripped of its cells using digestive enzymes, leaving behind only inert collagen and the “basal membrane” which provided the foundation for cell growth. This trachea was then “seeded” with the stem cells and the correct “growth factor” chemicals were applied. Using the new “bionic” technique, the boy’s trachea was ready to be implanted in just four hours.
“The idea is to use the reactions of the body to make the structure living” said stem cell pioneer Professor Paolo Macchiarini, of Careggi University hospital, in Florence. “We told the cells to differentiate and transform naturally into the layers that make up the airway. This is something that makes tissue regeneration very simple and accessible to everyone.”
According to Professor Macchiarini, the implications for future treatments went beyond replacing whole organs. Damaged organs such as lungs, hearts or livers could be repaired by patching them with stem cells.
Professor Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, who was part of the team behind the operation, said, “It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it’s the longest airway that has ever been replaced. I think the technique will allow not just highly specialised hospitals to carry out stem cell organ transplants.”
Written by Snigdha Taduri