Stem-cell trachea transplant sets new treatment standard

A Colombian mother who had tuberculosis is the recipient of a transplanted windpipe made in part from her own stem cells. The transplant requires no antirejection drugs because the patient's body recognises the cells as her own.

Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for antirejection drugs. "This technique has great promise," said Eric Genden, MD, 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 results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.

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