New York - There has been a breakthrough in the scientific world. A woman from Barcelona, Spain named Claudia Bastillo had her windpipe replaced with one created from stem cells and a donor windpipe in a laboratory in June of 2008. This is the first time in history that a person has had a windpipe transplant.
Claudia Bastillo is a thirty-year-old mother of two. She needed a new windpipe because in 2004 she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. The doctors decided that they needed to repair her windpipe because it had been badly damaged due to infection.
The technique used to make Claudia Bastillo a new windpipe is called tissue engineering. The doctors used a donor windpipe and they had Claudia Bastillo’s stem cells and bone marrow grow around it.
The groundbreaking surgery was done by Professor Paolo Macciarini who works at the Hospital Clinic of Spain. The doctors examined Claudia’s windpipe four days after her surgery and they saw that there was no difference between her windpipe and the normal windpipes of healthy individuals.
Claudia Bastillo has not had any organ rejection and she had her operation five months ago. She has not had to take any anti-rejection medications which many other transplant recipients usually do. She is now happy and healthy and enjoying a great life with her family.
Medical science always continues to amazes us. This medical breakthrough could help many Tuberculosis patients the way that it helped Claudia Castillo. This transplant shows us that our own cells and bone marrow can help to revive our organs. Many people could benefit from this new found knowledge.
There has always been a debate about using stem cells to find cures for different diseases and health problems. This transplant was done using a donor windpipe and the own patient’s cells and bone marrow which does not raise the same type of ethical questions that other stem cell research studies have raised.
This windpipe transplant for all intents and purposes was a huge success. The patient had no side effects and is fine after having her surgery five months ago. This gives hope to people who suffer from many different types of diseases and ailments.
Science continues to solve health issues that people all across the world deal with every single day. This breakthrough could be beneficial in helping to develop similar transplants using a donor’s organ and the patient’s living cells and bone marrow. Hopefully, we will see even more scientific developments soon.
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S. Gupta
It is becoming clearer than ever that we are not destined to live with the genetic inheritance of our parents and ancestors. First it was announced by Dr. Sinclair at Harvard that transmax resveratrol, a commercial extract of a red wine molecule by biotivia was able to switch on the SirT1 anti-aging gene and prevent the normal diseases of aging. Then scientists reported that a drug called Aircar that had been around for decades is capable or making sedentary mice into olympic contenders by modifying their muscles and increasing their endurance. Soon after that Harvard announced a way to create customized stem cells to treat specific diseases or grow new organs.
Nov 19th, 2008
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