New organ grown from stem cells
Spanish scientists have carried out the world's first tissue engineered whole organ transplant.
The organ - the trachea or windpipe - was grown from a 30-year-old woman's own stem cells, which means that she does not require anti-rejection drugs. The woman had suffered lung damage caused by tuberculosis and the transplant was the only way of giving her a normal life.
To make the new trachea, scientists took a donor organ and washed away the tissue cells leaving only the fibrous collagen 'scaffold'. They then repopulated this fibrous tissue with cells from the woman, which were then used in an operation to rebuild her damaged left bronchus - a branch of the trachea. Her body now thinks that the donated trachea is part of her own body and so will not reject it.
Five months on, the woman is in perfect health. The report was published in The Lancet.
