Organ Grown From Stem Cells In Lab Successfully Transplanted In (VIDEO)

Surgeons replaced the damaged windpipe of Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two, with one created from stem cells grown in a laboratory at Bristol University.

Because the new windpipe was made from cells taken from Ms Castillo's own body, using a process called "tissue engineering", she has not needed powerful drugs to prevent her body rejecting the organ.

Avoiding the use of these drugs means she will not be at an increased risk of cancer and other diseases unlike other transplant patients - another significant advance.

Five months after the operation was carried out she is now living normally and is able to look after her children again.

Read full story here.

-OR-

Watch a video report about the transplant below.

Comments

[carleronn]

11:16 AM on 11/24/2008

Note the abscence of the word "embryonic" . Also, note the absurdity of the posts which claim Bush's policy re stem cell research prohibits this type of breakthrough. Since present policy allows all research other than embryonic , and this discovery continues the streak of adult stem cells as the source of EVERY breakthrough to date, how can Bush be faulted? I know this requires a moment of thought rather than an immediate reaction but please, liberals, try ....

[mrodriques]

03:12 PM on 11/22/2008

I think that most of the comments on this article are a reflection of why we're having so many problems with this issue. We need to accept that some people have morality issues with the idea of embryonic stem cell research, and respect that. Although in this particular case, it is not embryonic, but adult, stem cells that were used.

Personally, I believe that there is no moral issue with using stem cells for research that would have been disposed of if not used anyway. I do however, accept and respect the fact that some people may not agree with that. It doesn't make them dumb, or wrong. It just means we disagree.

I think that we, as a nation, have done our best work when we weren't attacking people for thinking differently that we do, rather when we embraced our differences and worked together towards a commonly acceptable solution to our problems.

[FreedomAgain]

12:58 PM on 11/22/2008

Those d@mn socialists showing off again with their science, and growing new organs, and curing aids patients and such.

[Big0725]

05:21 PM on 11/22/2008

All sciencey and everything!

[aweissnet]

05:27 AM on 11/22/2008

Re: farming of embryonic cells: Man does lots in the name of money ... I wouldn't put anything past them to come up with a new market. Wouldn't this have to be run by intelligent science as opposed to black market on the take, cuz of the nature of things? Should the benefits be for everyone, and not just wealthy or those with private (and perhaps more comprehensive) insurance plans?

When does life start? How about when there is consciousness? Check into organ trafficking. I'd rather farming of embryonic cells, than people giving up their organs in some dirty hotel room or similar for a couple bucks, promise of air fare or a visa. There's just a whole slew of disgusting ways the privileged are getting organs out of the bodies of those who have less. I'm talking the living. They generally stay thay way but not always. People are also murdered for organs.

Embryonic cells? Take 'em.

[sepiasiren]

03:34 AM on 11/22/2008

Ummm people do know stem cells can come from adults right???? Some of you need to PLEASE open a book...

[SOLERSO68]

09:52 AM on 11/21/2008

No longer "hypothetical".

[AZ4thatone]

09:51 AM on 11/21/2008

This is positively cool! Now those two children can grow up with their mom and she is there to watch them grow up. This is a good thing. If you want to make moral judgements about stem cell research then realize that we were given a brain and inteligence. It would be a sin not to try to improve the life of someone who is ailing if we have the ability and knowledge to do it.

[tom ellison]

02:50 PM on 11/21/2008

They were ADULT stem cells. The comments on the board illustrate the ignorance about the great promise for adult stem cells.

[AZ4thatone]

12:57 AM on 11/22/2008

And some comments are just ignorant.

[BillMelater]

09:24 AM on 11/21/2008

Fantastic! This is precisely why we need stem cell research in the US. If they had Republicans in England, this would have never happened. We owe George Bush another round of thanks for putting the US behind in this fabulous new medical technology.

http://billmel8er.wordpress.com

[TLV]

08:02 AM on 11/20/2008

New pancreases would be wonderful. Imagine all of the diabetics the world over who would rejoice.

[paganmist]

07:53 AM on 11/20/2008

You know what's funny?

All the people claiming a single-celled organism is a "human life".

Well, now that they can take one of my cells (or a cluster of them) and create life from it, does that mean that every time I bite my fingernails off, I'm killing a potential human life? How about when I scrape the dead skin from my feet? What about when I cut my hair?

Where does this ridiculous theory stop? I agree that babies are precious. But a cluster of cells is not a baby, not until the female body makes it into one. Until then, it's a cluster of cells that can become something more, much like the various other cells in my body can become more.

Science please save us from the Moral Police.

[rubyinparadise]

10:45 AM on 11/20/2008

Sing it, sister!

[1099]

12:00 PM on 11/20/2008

Your overall point has some validity but your argument is moronic.

[Kevbo68]

04:48 AM on 11/20/2008

Placing my order for my third arm.... now.

[pokemon]

03:14 AM on 11/20/2008

Then what must be asked is this: are we simply to let the rich have these kinds of surgeries, or only those with regular non-government insurance, etc. No insurance company is made to keep you alive, so where do we draw the line?

[SwingVoter]

02:59 AM on 11/20/2008

Humans are being cloned already, and it has been going on for some time now.

[MalloMel]

07:47 AM on 11/20/2008

I feel sure that it is already happening somewhere in the world. I'm not against using fetal stem cells, but the idea of bringing a clone to term is kind of gross, to me. I really wouldn't want to be one, although I wouldn't have minded some of my cells being used in medicine, if I hadn't made it to term. I'm not a religionist, so I don't believe in the hocus-pocus stuff.

[RedDogBear]

09:16 AM on 11/21/2008

Its not as easy as in Sci Fi movies. Its more complex to clone larger animals. No one has ever cloned humans yet, there were some reports of it but they turned out to be fake. If you know about some real evidence that most people are unfamiliar with then please post a link or something but if not please don't just speculate and add to the immense amount of mis-information that already exists on this subject. I have MS and could one day be cured by stem cell research so I have a vested interest.

[DRaymond]

01:52 AM on 11/20/2008

Even though THIS operation used adult stem cells much basic research went overseas because it was not hamstrung by their governments. Bush's executive order had the effect of making the rest of the world the center of the next round of medical breakthroughs.

How did we learn about stem cells in general, adult stem cells in particular, and how to manipulate them? With fetal stem cells. You never know what you are losing by closing off an area of research.

[EarthToZoey]

01:43 AM on 11/20/2008

Wow! Isn't science fantastic? It's so wonderful to be alive in this revolutionary era and witness what the human mind can accomplish. Simply brilliant.