Doctors Grow New Windpipe Using Patient’s Own Cells
Part Two of Two

Working together, medical teams in Spain, Italy, and Britain have grown a new section of a damaged windpipe using the patient’s own bone marrow cells, according to a report in The Lancet. After receiving the new organ in June, 30-year-old Claudia Castillo of Barcelona has shown no signs of transplant rejection and is recovering well.

Mother-of-two Claudia Castillo can now resume an active life, thanks to a pioneering technique that used stem cells from her own bone marrow.

Paolo Macchiarini, of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, performed the transplant. He told the London Times. “She is enjoying a normal life, which for us clinicians is the most beautiful gift.”

Although not emphasized in many accounts, Martin Birchall, professor of surgery at the University of Bristol, pointed out that “Surgeons can now start to see and understand the very real potential for adult stem cells and tissue engineering to radically improve their ability to treat patients,” according to New Scientist. “This is the first time a tissue-engineered whole organ has been transplanted into a patient,” he told the Times. “I reckon in 20 years’ time it will be the commonest operation-- it will transform the way we think about surgery.”

Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are obtained by killing the donor, the successful treatment used adult stem cells directly from the patient, avoiding both the ethical controversy and the need to use powerful drugs to avoid tissue rejection. Yet again, despite lofty promises and media hype over embryonic cells, adult stem cells are saving lives now without causing any harm.

Bristol University issued a statement saying that Castillo’s left bronchus — the tube connecting the windpipe to the left lung — was so badly damaged by tuberculosis that she was unable to walk more than a few steps at a time she was hospitalized in March. In such cases, the lung usually has to be removed, according to the Times, a procedure which carries a risk of complications and a high mortality rate.

However, as reported in the November 19 issue of The Lancet, doctors instead tried a pioneering surgery. A three-inch-long segment of the trachea was taken from an organ donor in Spain and then sent to the University of Padua, Italy, where a team, led by Maria Teresa Conconi, removed the donor’s own cells using detergent and enzymes over a six-week period. The donor windpipe could then be used as a scaffolding to create a new organ for Castillo, according to New Scientist.

In Britain, Birchall led a group that removed stem cells from Castillo’s bone marrow and manipulated them in the lab to develop into the cartilage cells that normally coat windpipes. These cells were then “seeded” onto the donated tracheal scaffolding using a technique developed in Milan, and continued to grow into a new windpipe, the Times reported. Castillo received the organ in a transplant operation in June.

Castillo also said she was very happy with the results of the transplant. “I was scared at the beginning because I was the first patient—but trusted the doctors,” she told the Times. “I am now enjoying life and am very happy that my illness has been cured.”

Part One