Through a cooperation of 4 European universities, physicians have performed the world’s first successful transplant of a human windpipe that uses the patient’s own stem cells. The cells have been used to grow an extra windpipe which will not be rejected by the patient’s immune system. One of the physicians performing the surgery, called the procedure the herald of a “new age in surgical care.”

The patient Claudia Castillo was operated on in June in Barcelona, Spain, and was cured of an acute breath shortage due to a failing windpipe resulting from severe tuberculosis. The operation was prepared for weeks ahead at the universities of Barcelona; Bristol, England; Padua and Milan, Italy.

Back in the states rumors are flying on the topic of stem cell research, more specifically that President-elect Barack Obama may reverse the Bush Administration ban of stem cell research, a controversial topic in certain European countries as well. According to Anthony Hollander, a professor with Bristol University said that ethical matters related to embryonic stem cell research were not an issue here due to only the patient’s own stem cells being used. “This was not embryonic stem cell research,” he remarked in a telephone interview.

Castillo, who is 30, was put into hospital in March with a windpipe so badly damaged from tuberculosis that she found herself unable to walk more than a few steps at one time, says Bristol University.

“The only conventional option remaining was a major operation to remove her left lung which carries a risk of complications and a high mortality rate,” Bristol University said. The university went on to call the procedure “pioneering work.”

On the University of Barcelona’s side, Professor Paolo Macchiarini who performed the operation said that “We are terribly excited by these results. Just four days after transplantation the graft was almost indistinguishable from adjacent normal bronchi.”

Two months after the surgery, lung function tests on Ms. Castillo “were all at the better end of the normal range for a young woman,” the Bristol University statement said.

Martin Birchall, of the Bristol University said that the transplant demonstrated “the very real potential for adult stem cells and tissue engineering to radically improve their ability to treat patients with serious diseases. We believe this success has proved that we are on the verge of a new age in surgical care.”

According to the University’s statement, a portion of trachea, some three inches long, was taken from a 51-year-old donor who died of a cerebral hemorrhage. By means of a new technique developed in Padua University, the trachea was stripped of its donor’s cells over six weeks so that no donor cells remained.

Meanwhile at Bristol University, stem cells from Ms. Castillo’s bone marrow were multiplied and used to “seed” the donated wind pipe, using a technique developed in Milan to incubate cells.

Four days after the seeding, the graft replaced Ms. Castillo’s damaged trachea.

Transplants usually have a high risk of rejection due to the recipient’s immune system believing it to be a foreign body. Transplant patients therefore have to use immunosuppressant drugs to prevent this rejection. These can cause health problems and a weak overall defense of the organism over time.

In the case of Ms. Castillo however, “The patient has not developed antibodies to her graft, despite not taking any immunosuppressive drugs,” the statement from Bristol University said.