Tuesday, November 18, 2008

British Doctors Help Perform World's First Transplant Of A Whole Organ Grown In Lab

Claudia Castillo underwent an operation to replace her windpipe with a bioengineered replacement after tuberculosis had left her with a collapsed lung (Photo from The Independent)

From The Telegraph:

British doctors have helped to perform the world's first transplant of a whole organ grown from stem cells, signalling a significant medical breakthrough.

Surgeons replaced the damaged windpipe of Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two, with one created from stem cells grown in a laboratory at Bristol University.

Because the new windpipe was made from cells taken from Ms Castillo's own body, using a process called "tissue engineering", she has not needed powerful drugs to prevent her body rejecting the organ.

Read more ....

Update #1: The medical miracle -- The Independent

Update #2: Claudia Castillo gets windpipe tailor-made from her own stem cells -- Times Online

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