Spanish Surgeon Performs First Synthetic Organ Transplant 91
Bob the Super Hamste writes "The BBC is reporting that surgeons in Sweden have transplanted a synthetic windpipe into a patient. The synthetic windpipe was grown from a scaffolding and coated with the patients own stem cells. The scaffolding was made using 3D images of the patient's own windpipe. The new windpipe was made by scientists in London."
Big Deal (Score:1)
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What knockers!
Oh, thank you, doctor...
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I can't think of what the technical term would be for the things you're citing (cybernetic implants?) but that's not what's being discussed here. One is trying to restore lost functionality by duplicating lost or damaged parts of the body and the other is trying to add entirely new funct
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Not the first by 5 years (Score:4, Interesting)
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The biggest thing to note about growing these "artificial" parts is that if the organ being replaced has a complex vain system, you cannot grow or replace it.
Hopefully this will be resolved in the future so we can live to 150.
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Why is vanity an issue? Are these synthetic organs less ascetically pleasing?
I would be more worried about the circulatory system of such organs.
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The difference in this case is the use of stem cells to replace known bad cells. The Atala group used differentiated cells, which is of more limited use when dealing with potentially cancerous organ tissues.
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Huge (Score:5, Insightful)
As I write this, the only comments posted so far are the usual sarcastic quips. But this is huge. Beyond huge.
For the first time, an artificially produced cloned organ has been created and transplanted. Someone has received an organ that has zero chance of rejection and will heal to a completely natural state.
I give it less than a decade before more complex organs like hearts or kidneys are transplanted for the first time.
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I suppose all those clone movies were for nothing, then. Not much point in raising a full clone when you can just grow the part you need at will.
Of course, this won't help for emergencies, but if someone has the time to spare, this is a much better option than a donated organ.
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"Emergencies" is open-ended. The patient in TFA had a relatively slow but still dire emergency, and he was helped in a timeframe doctors would consider "lightning speed" - growing a heretofore irreplaceable part in two weeks.
How many people could be treated if a new irreplaceble organ of their own tissue could be made for them in, say, one month's time? The benefits would almost outstrip the imagination.
Re:Huge (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually it might.
They can build the structure ahead of time, and then when needed put your cells onto the stricture.
I suspect there will be a time when you can have your critical organ on 'standby'. At my age, I would love to hae a second heart ready to replace my older one. I read a paper where they where discussing the possible of creating a heart this way, and then having it put inside you along with your other heart to take over.
It was high level musing..but high level musing by people that know all the details.
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I suspect there will be a time when you can have your critical organ on 'standby'.
Well, I realize you're a bit older, but I, for one, always have my critical organ on standby.
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It's huge fro a rejection stand point, the after organ transplant procedure is pretty nasty. All that would go away.
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But this is huge. Beyond huge.
If you're talking about the costs to the patient, sure. I doubt it will be covered by medicaid...
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Re:Huge (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, but it's a much smaller bill. Turns out that any level of 'government inefficiency' is a drop in the bucket beside the waste of having every company involved take its 50% off the top, plus executive salaries, plus lack of preventative medicine because that is an 'expense'.
Here is an excellent graphic from National Geographic [ngm.com] comparing spending to life expectancy. Despite having worse outcomes than almost every nation on the chart, the US is spending so much more that they had to be placed outside the graph. In fact, most industrialized nations are spending less than half as much as the US for better outcomes. The only countries with worse outcomes are spending less than a quarter as much per person as the US does.
So while the citizens as the United States of America may not be able to afford it, I suspect the rest of the world will do just fine.
And that assumes that this causes a net rise in health costs. My guess is that, when all is said and done, replacing damaged organs will prove much cheaper than long term treatment and complications do now.
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that is an awesome chart - thanks.
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Actually, the US has better outcomes for medical care than other nations; lower life expectancy is due to more obesity and heart disease, plus some other factors. Insufficient preventive medicine isn't due to cost or lack of coverage either for most people, it's a choice for most people (a stupid one but still a choice).
And the rest of the world isn't "doing just fine". Most countries in the world can't even spend close to what either the US or Europe are spending.
And long term, people are deeply concerne
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I give it less than a decade before more complex organs like hearts or kidneys are transplanted for the first time.
Ummm... we've been transplanting hearts and kidneys for decades...
Correct terminology IMO would be implanted. If you transplant a tree you dig it up and move from one spot in the ground to another. The windpipe didn't come from another body it came from the labratory.
Maybe. (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong, being able to build new organs and implant them is great.
But that doesn't mean the new organs will last, or work perfectly. We need to check back in a few years to see how the patient did.
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There are plenty of concerns, but given the alternative was death, it's not at all a bad risk. Even if the organs did turn out not to last long, they would at least be a good bridge to transplant.
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I give it less than a decade before more complex organs like hearts or kidneys are transplanted for the first time.
Too bad it will take until the year 2368 before bodyparts like the spinal column... (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Worf#Ailments_and_injuries http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Toby_Russell)
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For the first time, an artificially produced cloned organ has been created and transplanted.
No. They've been doing this with cloned bladders for close to a decade. The only new aspect to this is that they created the scaffold from 3D scans of the patient's own organ.
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How sad is it that I see this huge advancement and think, "Boy, that sounds expensive." *sigh* Such is life in modern America.
Hmmm... (Score:2, Insightful)
Wouldn't that be an "implant"? I mean, they're not taking it from someone else, are they..?
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Good point. I think the reasoning is that it's a replacement of an existing organ, whereas an "implant" would be something added to the original.
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and 3D image of African patient's windpipe...
Spanish surgeon? (Score:1)
Re:Spanish surgeon? (Score:4, Informative)
Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery
the 36-year-old African patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene
Did you?
Re:Spanish surgeon? (Score:4, Informative)
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A Spanish surgeon in a Swedish facility with a British organ for an African patient. Now that is Globalization!
You forgot to mention that the spanish surgeon has a obvious italian name...
It seems he's actually Italian (Score:1)
Windpipe? (Score:2)
So, is it a Wurlitzer?
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The one three years used a donor trachea - they washed away the donor cells leaving just the scaffold.
With this one, the scaffold was created artificially from a 3D model of the patients original one.
Similar, but quite a big difference, though the difference is only in the scaffold.
Building on the work of others (Score:2)
Child Receives Trachea Grown From Own Stem Cells [slashdot.org]
But it seems that instead of taking a donor trachea and using it for the "scaffold," they built their own, no donor at all.. Pretty amazing.
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Define "synthetic" (Score:2)
Someone already brought up the artificially grown bladder, which was covered earlier this year, so this surgery already seems dubious as a "first synthetic organ" transplant. The BBC article title says first synthetic windpipe, but the subtitle says first synthetic organ. I call shenanigans (and suspect a bit of nationalism at work).
However, what about the Jarvik artificial hearts? Those were developed and transplanted years ago. Don't those qualify as synthetic organs, since they are artificial yet per
Other more important words (Score:1)
These windpipes are both custom printed to match the structure of the patient's original windpipe, and are made with the patient's stem cells.
Synthetic is not the most salient descriptor, but none of the other f
Implant, not transplant (Score:2)
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If it doesn't make your boobs bigger, it's a transplant.
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Technically, it's a replant.
Spanish surgeon? holy crap! (Score:2)
You are all missing the important point here, as illustrated in the title of this article.
A *spanish* surgeon did this.
I mean, it is the first word and all.
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This kind of news is absolutely huge for a TG girl. In a few years time, it might become possible to get a complete vagina/womb/ovaries set even if you were not born a genetic female. Totally awesome...
Vagina/womb perhaps, but ovaries are a big ask. You should have saved some sperm for later if you wanted children that were genetically your own.
I think it was an Italian surgeon. (Score:2)
"Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Italy led the pioneering surgery, which took place at the Karolinska University Hospital."
The only reference to Spain I saw:
"Professor Macchiarini already has 10 other windpipe transplants under his belt - most notably the world's first tissue-engineered tracheal transplant in 2008 on 30-year-old Spanish woman Claudia Costillo"
Not to diminish Spanish doctors, just pointing out what I think is an error in the title.
Spanish or Sweedish or Italian (Score:2)
And not a Spaniard was to seen... (Score:1)
Italian surgeon. African patient (studying in Iceland). English technology. Operation took place in Sweden.
I guess the poster of the article can be given for the error in the subject line. With such an international cast it's hard to believe that a Spaniard wasn't involved *somewhere*.
Awesome (Score:2)
Hopefully the technique used to grow the windpipe will be useable by other organs too, for those replacements...and be free of anti rejection drugs as a whole!