Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27790019/

LONDON - Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

“This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.

The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.

Read more: MSNBC

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VIDEO CLIP:



Nov. 18: Doctors in Barcelona make medical history when they transplant a new trachea into a woman. The organ was created with the help of the patient's own stem cells and may pave the way for more breakthroughs. Msnbc.com's Keva Andersen reports.

[Mnemosyne]

1. What an amazing world. Hope flows... Thanks AV! KnR! n/t

[Truth Teller]

2. Good news, off to the Greatest!

[Mnemosyne]

3. Great! needed to be there. n/t

[Truth Teller]

4. I love finding a good thread with 4 rec's

and being able to send it off. :)

[Mnemosyne]

25. I do too! Think I hit 4 or 5 yesterday.

:)

[TeeYiYi]

5. The hope of stem cell research in the US...

...is the hope that Obama brings.

TYY

[Igel]

26. There's a lot of stem-cell research in the US.

Some involves HESCs with both federal and other funding, using older stem-cell lines. "HESC" = Human embryonic stem cells.

Some involves HESCs from newer stem-cell lines, using entirely non-federal funding. I knew somebody in a lab in Texas that was doing HESC research with new cell lines. It wasn't for public knowledge, since for sure somebody would probably protest it. The research was perfectly legal.

Lots and lots of research, using both federal and non-federal funds, uses stem cells that aren't from human embryos. For that, there is no restriction on federal funding. In fact, I think in 2002 there was the first budget which stipulated that so much money would be ear-marked for stem-cell research, but stem-cell research wasn't limited to those funds; if not 2002, then 2003. Prior to that stem-cell research always competed for any funding it got.

One common view is that all stem-cell research uses HESCs. Or that it's illegal to use HESCs, or at least newer HESC lines, in research. Or that the federal government doesn't fund any stem-cell research. "Common", in this case, doesn't have anything in common with "correct", apart from sharing the first two letters in English orthography.

[bluevoter4life]

6. Windpipe Transplant Breakthrough

Source: BBC

Scientists in Spain have carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant - a windpipe - made with a patient's own stem cells.

The groundbreaking technology also means for the first time tissue transplants can be carried out without the need for anti-rejection drugs.

Five months on the patient is in perfect health, The Lancet reports.

Tailor-made organs like this could become the norm, the European team of experts believe.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7735696.stm

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This is a remarkable procedure. There is a great video on the site to go along with the article. Simply amazing. Such progress the world has made in the medical arts.

[FirstLight]

7. I wonder if they will be able to do this with nerves..?

I have been waiting for stem cell work to progress enough, my daughter has an optic nerve defect...maybe someday before she is too old it can be repaired...

[sandnsea]

8. gasp

:wow:

The possibilities. Spinal cord injuries. Hope for so many.

[quidam56]

9. Acceptable Standards of Health Care in Tennessee

Why are we so far down on the list of other countries in the world below Cuba on health care ? Horrifying health care is deemed "Acceptable" standards of health care in East Tennessee. We hear so much about affordable health care, but we also need to work on putting the Patient back in Patient Care instead of the way it is now. Profit Care comes first. http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[tomp]

21. too busy making war and handing out corporate welfare.

still waiting for change.

[Warpy]

10. I hope this is a sign of things to come

because someone close to me has just been put on the list for a heart-lung transplant.

[stark6935]

11. Should be nice when science returns to the USA

[Olney Blue]

19. Exactly.

[FLyellowdog]

12. 39 years ago...

my month-old daughter's windpipe constricted and she required a tracheotomy. Her prognosis was that when she was around 3 or 4 years old, she'd get a teflon windpipe section to replace the collapsed portion.

Fortunately, something strange happened and the windpipe grew and opened up enough so that she no longer needed the trach (after 15 months). We'd cared for her at home all during that time...no sounds from her little throat, special equipment, etc.

She's perfectly healthy after all these years. What a great advancement that maybe other infants will no longer require the kind of care she needed. And after only 39 years!!!!

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

13. Exciting times to be alive, folks.

[jeff30997]

14. Rec #5.Great news.

That's astounding all the discoveries that are made year after year at an increasing rate.

Hey,maybe in a decade or so they'll even be able to give fundies a brain transplant.

[snot]

15. I'm ready for

new hands, a new face, a new brain.

[progressoid]

23. Yeah, my grey matter is getting a little tired.

I could use a replacement.

[ksimons]

16. WOW!!!!!!!

damn incredible!!! thanks for posting

[tomreedtoon]

17. They should take medicine away from doctors...

...and put it into the hands of engineers and mechanics.

I know the people that watch Dr. McDouchebag on Grey's Anatomy think that medical care should be romantic, emotionally fulfilling AND efficient. That's a phony illusion. Most doctors are worn to a frazzle trying to be civil to people who are trying to do procedures, but want a life-changing experience.

If we just went into a shop, laid down on a table, and got someone to replace our lungs, kidneys or heart (after stopping at the desk and getting some of our stem cells removed), got a trip home with some monitoring equipment, and took a day off work for recovery, it would be a lot better.

And people would stop thinking that doctors were freaking gods, and they could just do their work.

[Olney Blue]

20. Engineers and mechanics without medical training?

Good luck with that.... when I need medical help, I don't care if the doctor is an arrogant jerk- just fix the problem.

[tomreedtoon]

22. No, engineers and mechanics REPLACING doctors.

You don't tell your mechanic the story of your life. You just get him to do the job.

In fact, I understand there are medical clinic in South America that operate on a variation of this principle. For certain procedures, like hip replacement, there are specialty clinics. They check you in. One doctor, and one only, checks all the patients for potential problems. Then they turn the surgery and processes over to people trained in procedures.

Each person does only one job during the surgery. But he or she is an expert in that particular part of the procedure. They get it done quickly, efficiently, successfully - and even with the many people involved, LESS COSTLY than the same procedure done in the States.

That sounds like the future of medicine to me, not tons of money paid to the drug corporations or starry-eyed patients looking for a Dr. McDouchebag of their very own.

[zelta gaisma]

18. cool i hope we get to have that kind of health care someday

[marshall]

24. A wonderful breakthrough that everyone can cheer about

I hope this success pushes the research in areas like this that there should be no controversy about since it's her own stem cells. Of course the research leading up to it probably involved the controversial type of stem cells. Maybe more successes like this will soften enough people's hearts and we can move forward with research under whatever moral guidelines we as a society choose to follow.