Stem cells have been touted as the treatment of the future for many diseases but perhaps surprisingly, they have also made the news recently for their ability to rebuild areas of the body that have suffered from tissue destruction.
These types of procedures have previously been difficult and unsuccessful ones, partly due to immunological rejection of tissue transplanted from someone else as well as the mechanics of mimicking function and form for real human tissue.
Creating a Windpipe
For one patient, this treatment was not only a reality but also a live-saving one. Her trachea – or windpipe – was essentially ‘rebuilt’ using her own stem cells. The newly built trachea then gave her an airway that functioned properly, which ultimately saved the patient’s life.
Functioning Windpipe
The airway had all the mechanical properties that are necessary to ensure the woman was able to breathe properly. In fact, when doctors did testing on her lung functioning a couple of months after the transplant, she performed at the high end of the normal result for a woman of her age.
Disease and Tissue Destruction
The woman had previously suffered from tuberculosis, which left her in the hospital as she struggled with breathing difficulties. At the young age of thirty, she had two children and couldn’t adequately care for them or function on a day-to-day basis. Other methods of trying to rebuild or replace parts of the airway haven’t been successful and removing one of her lungs still carried an enormous risk of complications.
Responding to Urgent Need
Since her case was a very urgent one and the research team involved had experienced success in laboratory work with tissue transplantation, they decided to create a new airway using the woman’s own stem cells.
The team started out with a piece of trachea from a donor who had just died and then they performed a procedure over the next month and a half to remove all traces of donor cells. The woman who was set to receive the rebuilt trachea had bone marrow stem cells from her body extracted and grown in the laboratory before the trachea was finished with her own cells and then transplanted into her body.
The results were positive and exciting for everyone involved, not only because the procedure restored the woman’s airway functioning but also because it signalled renewed hope for others who suffer from tissue destruction due to injury or disease. The woman’s ability to perform daily tasks when she previously was challenged as well as her ability to now mother her children without restriction has been a positive outcome for everyone.
Advancing Stem Cell Research
This accomplishment is particularly exciting for researchers because it shows that stem cells can effectively rebuild damaged tissue in the body. The risk of immunological rejection is dealt with because the adult stem cells are taken from the recipient’s own body.
There is also no need for the recipient to take special immune-compromising drugs to reduce the risk of rejection, which further increases the success and health of the recipient transplantation. Hopefully, we will see more success in tissue transplantation for future disease sufferers.
