Technologies based upon adult stems cells - the kind that don't involve the destruction of a human embryo - continue to find both application and success in the real-world. Here's the latest:
In a world first in children, British and Italian doctors have transplanted a new airway (trachea) into a child and used the child's own stem cells, in the body, to rebuild it.
The donated trachea was stripped of the donor's old cells, down to the inert collagen. The child recipient's bone marrow stem cells were collected, and applied to the graft in situ in the body, to rebuild the cellular component of the trachea. Thus the child's own cells will be used to make the new airway sealed and effective.
This is the first time that this has been performed in a child. It is also the first time the entire length of the trachea has been transplanted.
The application of this technology should reduce greatly the risk of rejection of the new trachea, as the child's stem cells will not generate any immune response.
HT: FRCBlog
