“I made a windpipe for some chick!” –Stem Cell
European doctors grow a windpipe from stem cells and perform a successful transplant surgery! The recipient, Claudia Castillo received the new section of trachea without risking rejection because her own stem cells were used in the tissue engineering.
A medical team from Spain, the UK, and Italy created the new windpipe using a donor trachea, also. The cells were removed (leaving the structure of the tissue) and replaced with Castillo’s stem cells along with healthy cells from her own trachea.
Castillo is doing well. She is able to care for her children and even goes out dancing once in a while.
Filed under: Health, Media, News Headlines, Science, news, public health | Tagged: Claudia Castillo, Medicine, Stem Cells, Trachea transplant, Windpipe
WOW!!!! That is amazing!!!
Add it to the list of things we never thought would happen..wow. This other article I found [http://tinyurl.com/6lxnj6] says that they might be able to use it to regrow knee cartilage and even for heart transplants!
Crazy…anyone know if that’s true?
That’s for the link, RB. When I taught ethics 10 years ago, this was one of the possible outcomes of cloning technology being discussed by researchers. Knee cartilage seems easy theoretically. Organs are trickier.