British scientists involved in medical implant of ‘grown’ organ

The synthetic trachea, or windpipe, was created by seeding the patient’s own stem cells on to an artificial “scaffold”.

British scientists helped to design and built the structure, an exact replica of the man’s original windpipe.

Windpipes have been grown from stem cells before, but only using the collagen “skeletons” of donated tracheas.

Using an entirely synthetic scaffold means patients do not have to wait for a suitable donor organ.This is especially important for children, for whom donor tracheas are much more difficult to find.

The patient, an African student living in Iceland, had life-threatening tracheal cancer.

Spanish regenerative medicine pioneer Professor Paolo Macchiarini led the ground-breaking operation at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden.

Professor Alexander Seifalian, from University College London, worked with Prof Macchiarini to produce the synthetic trachea scaffold which was taken to Sweden where it was “seeded” with stem cells from the patient’s own body. It was then placed in a “bioreactor”, a device providing the right environment for growth. After just two days the stem cells had grown into tracheal cells ready for transplantation and since the organ was built from cells originating from the patient, there was no risk of it being rejected.