Stem Cell-Created Organ Successfully Implanted
Jul 8, 2011 10:26:21 GMT -5
Post by shann0 on Jul 8, 2011 10:26:21 GMT -5
lezgetreal.com/2011/07/stem-cell-created-organ-successfully-implanted-in-sweden/
07-07-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell
Human Stem Cell colony
What if we didn¡¯t need to harvest organs from the dead to save the living? In an international effort, that is what happened a month ago in Sweden. British scientists created an artificial windpipe, which was transplanted by a Spanish doctor into a terminal African cancer patient who lives in Iceland. The patient, 36-year-old Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene of Eritrea, had undergone radiation treatments and chemotherapy for the inoperable tumor, but it had reached the size of a golf ball and was blocking Beyene¡¯s breathing. Without the transplant, he was going to die very soon.
Professor Paolo Macchiarini has transplanted 10 windpipes during his career, all involving donor organs. The ¡°synthetic¡± windpipe was a merger of high-tech engineering and stem cells harvested from the patient. Stem cells are ¡°blank¡± human cells that do not have the programming to become a specific type of tissue in the human body. They are the cells present in the earliest stages of embryonic development and there are some stem cells available in the adult body throughout life. Embryonic cells are the most vigorous, and therefore the ones preferred for the creation of what are known as ¡°stem cell lines¡± ¨C generations of stem cells that can be used for research or therapies.
British scientists were given 3-D images of Beyene¡¯s trachea. From these, they created a very fragile, very porous glass structure exactly mimicking the trachea and two main bronchi. This was flown to Sweden¡¯s Karolinska University Hospital, where it was soaked in a solution of stem cells extracted from Beyene¡¯s bone marrow. After two days, the glass structure had ¡°grown¡± a trachea made of Beyene¡¯s own tissue, a trachea that would not be rejected when implanted in his body and would not require the dangerous anti-rejection drugs most transplants need. It was not explained in the BBC report what happens to the glass structure or the exact nature of it.
The ¡°synthetic¡± trachea, which isn¡¯t really synthetic, was implanted a month ago. The patient¡¯s recovery has been slow, but he is looking forward to returning to school in Iceland to finish his PhD in geology, then return to his home to be with his wife and children, including a new three-month old. From his hospital bed, in an interview with the BBC, Beyene said ¡°I was very scared, very scared about the operation. But it was live or die.¡± He said he is eternally grateful to the medical team and engineers who saved his life.
This is what scientists dreamed of when stem cell research began¡.the ability to replace damaged human tissue with fresh tissue. Organ transplants require donors and matching donor with recipient and no matter how close the match, anti-rejections drugs that can have detrimental side-effects. Stem cells do not involve any of that. But the early use of embryonic stem cells in the United States set off an uproar about abortion ¨C accusations that aborted fetuses were being used for this research, even though most embryonic cells were from donated unused embryos created for in vitro fertilization procedures that would have ended up in incinerators. President Bush, bowing to pressure from the anti-abortion lobby, cut off federal medical research funding for stem cell lines that were not already in existence. But those lines were deteriorating, and America fell behind everyone else in stem cell research. Though the research could continue in privately funded labs, researchers were scared of the climate the debate had generated. They feared becoming targets the way abortion doctors and clinics had become.
There were suggestions, during the stem cell debate here that pharmaceutical companies were opposing the expansion of stem cell research. The suggestions gained some credence when one considered the amount of money Americans spend on pain killers for arthritis, and the impact if it became possible to have a series of shots that replaced the lost cartilage that is the cause of arthritis pain. When enough cartilage is lost, the bones of the joints themselves become worn down, leading to very expensive joint replacement surgery.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, multiple sclerosis was being successfully treated with stem cells. MS is caused by the destruction of the myelin sheathing on nerves. Stem cells can be programmed to replace the myelin. In Thailand, patients suffering from congestive heart disease are treated with adult stem cells, harvested from their own bodies and flown to Israel for multiplication, then returned to the Thailand for injection into the patient. The success rate is in the high 80 percentiles for these procedures, and so many people from around the world have applied for the surgery that the hospitals in Thailand had to set up a triage system, with the youngest patients moving ahead of older patients on the waiting list. Brazil also has a thriving business in stem cell therapies.
Stem cells cannot be used in diseases that involve the creation of tissue, like Alzheimers in which the primary culprit is the creation of plague in the brain which disrupts synaptic connections. Where stem cell therapy is most promising is in any disease that involves the loss of tissue or, as this successful trachea transplant has proven, in replacing diseased organs with new ones. Instead of a dual surgery, taking less-clogged arteries and veins from legs to replace clogged arteries around the heart, stem cells would make it possible to create completely clean, new arteries. There has also been some research into the possibility of using stem cells to create working organs for post-surgical transgendered persons, just as they could be used to create replacement organs for women who have had hysterectomies. The potentials are almost endless.
It is still to be determined if adult stem cells can be used in all situations, or if there will continue to be a need for some embryonic stem cells for specific types of replacements. America¡¯s eleven-year lag in research means that we have been denied more than just access to permanent cures for things we now treat with years of drugs and years of waiting on organ donor lists. It has denied us a weapon against our outrageous medical costs and placed us far behind other countries in biotechnology and research.
I have lost two friends who would still be alive if we had stem cell therapy in this country. Barbara was on the waiting list for heart therapy in Thailand when she died five years ago. She survived the deprivations of life in wartime England, the blitz in London, the German strafing of a country lane filled with school children, a bomb which landed on a theater she had just exited and being a spy in North Africa in the 1950¡¯s. Though the techniques had been perfected in Thailand, if we had been able to use the same therapies in America, Barbara could have been treated here, and not pushed back on a waiting list because of her age. Jason was just 36. As a teenager, he was given steroids because he was shorter than expected given his family members¡¯ sizes. The steroids caused bone deterioration, until, at 25, it was discovered that he only had 30% of normal bone density after a slight fender-bender shattered three of his vertebrae. When stem cell research came to a screeching pause in America, some researchers were working on using stem cells to rebuild bones as well as spinal cords. Eleven years of osteoporosis medications and pain medications did irreparable damage to his vital organs. Last month, after a hospitalization for his failing kidneys, he collapsed. His entire medical nightmare, his unendurable pain, his confinement to his parents¡¯ house because he could barely ride in a car, his loss of everything that we consider normal for a young man, all took place while America diddled around with stem cell research.
These are just two of the thousands of people who could have been saved with stem cells in the past decade, and there are millions now living with drugs and pain and impairment who could live normal lives with stem cell therapy. Beyond the loss of access to abortions, beyond the closure of clinics for women¡¯s health, beyond the murders of doctors, nurses and aides at clinics, beyond all the direct results, these thousands of deaths and millions of suffering human beings are the price of allowing a group of fanatics to determine the shape and manner of our medical care.
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07-07-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell
Human Stem Cell colony
What if we didn¡¯t need to harvest organs from the dead to save the living? In an international effort, that is what happened a month ago in Sweden. British scientists created an artificial windpipe, which was transplanted by a Spanish doctor into a terminal African cancer patient who lives in Iceland. The patient, 36-year-old Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene of Eritrea, had undergone radiation treatments and chemotherapy for the inoperable tumor, but it had reached the size of a golf ball and was blocking Beyene¡¯s breathing. Without the transplant, he was going to die very soon.
Professor Paolo Macchiarini has transplanted 10 windpipes during his career, all involving donor organs. The ¡°synthetic¡± windpipe was a merger of high-tech engineering and stem cells harvested from the patient. Stem cells are ¡°blank¡± human cells that do not have the programming to become a specific type of tissue in the human body. They are the cells present in the earliest stages of embryonic development and there are some stem cells available in the adult body throughout life. Embryonic cells are the most vigorous, and therefore the ones preferred for the creation of what are known as ¡°stem cell lines¡± ¨C generations of stem cells that can be used for research or therapies.
British scientists were given 3-D images of Beyene¡¯s trachea. From these, they created a very fragile, very porous glass structure exactly mimicking the trachea and two main bronchi. This was flown to Sweden¡¯s Karolinska University Hospital, where it was soaked in a solution of stem cells extracted from Beyene¡¯s bone marrow. After two days, the glass structure had ¡°grown¡± a trachea made of Beyene¡¯s own tissue, a trachea that would not be rejected when implanted in his body and would not require the dangerous anti-rejection drugs most transplants need. It was not explained in the BBC report what happens to the glass structure or the exact nature of it.
The ¡°synthetic¡± trachea, which isn¡¯t really synthetic, was implanted a month ago. The patient¡¯s recovery has been slow, but he is looking forward to returning to school in Iceland to finish his PhD in geology, then return to his home to be with his wife and children, including a new three-month old. From his hospital bed, in an interview with the BBC, Beyene said ¡°I was very scared, very scared about the operation. But it was live or die.¡± He said he is eternally grateful to the medical team and engineers who saved his life.
This is what scientists dreamed of when stem cell research began¡.the ability to replace damaged human tissue with fresh tissue. Organ transplants require donors and matching donor with recipient and no matter how close the match, anti-rejections drugs that can have detrimental side-effects. Stem cells do not involve any of that. But the early use of embryonic stem cells in the United States set off an uproar about abortion ¨C accusations that aborted fetuses were being used for this research, even though most embryonic cells were from donated unused embryos created for in vitro fertilization procedures that would have ended up in incinerators. President Bush, bowing to pressure from the anti-abortion lobby, cut off federal medical research funding for stem cell lines that were not already in existence. But those lines were deteriorating, and America fell behind everyone else in stem cell research. Though the research could continue in privately funded labs, researchers were scared of the climate the debate had generated. They feared becoming targets the way abortion doctors and clinics had become.
There were suggestions, during the stem cell debate here that pharmaceutical companies were opposing the expansion of stem cell research. The suggestions gained some credence when one considered the amount of money Americans spend on pain killers for arthritis, and the impact if it became possible to have a series of shots that replaced the lost cartilage that is the cause of arthritis pain. When enough cartilage is lost, the bones of the joints themselves become worn down, leading to very expensive joint replacement surgery.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, multiple sclerosis was being successfully treated with stem cells. MS is caused by the destruction of the myelin sheathing on nerves. Stem cells can be programmed to replace the myelin. In Thailand, patients suffering from congestive heart disease are treated with adult stem cells, harvested from their own bodies and flown to Israel for multiplication, then returned to the Thailand for injection into the patient. The success rate is in the high 80 percentiles for these procedures, and so many people from around the world have applied for the surgery that the hospitals in Thailand had to set up a triage system, with the youngest patients moving ahead of older patients on the waiting list. Brazil also has a thriving business in stem cell therapies.
Stem cells cannot be used in diseases that involve the creation of tissue, like Alzheimers in which the primary culprit is the creation of plague in the brain which disrupts synaptic connections. Where stem cell therapy is most promising is in any disease that involves the loss of tissue or, as this successful trachea transplant has proven, in replacing diseased organs with new ones. Instead of a dual surgery, taking less-clogged arteries and veins from legs to replace clogged arteries around the heart, stem cells would make it possible to create completely clean, new arteries. There has also been some research into the possibility of using stem cells to create working organs for post-surgical transgendered persons, just as they could be used to create replacement organs for women who have had hysterectomies. The potentials are almost endless.
It is still to be determined if adult stem cells can be used in all situations, or if there will continue to be a need for some embryonic stem cells for specific types of replacements. America¡¯s eleven-year lag in research means that we have been denied more than just access to permanent cures for things we now treat with years of drugs and years of waiting on organ donor lists. It has denied us a weapon against our outrageous medical costs and placed us far behind other countries in biotechnology and research.
I have lost two friends who would still be alive if we had stem cell therapy in this country. Barbara was on the waiting list for heart therapy in Thailand when she died five years ago. She survived the deprivations of life in wartime England, the blitz in London, the German strafing of a country lane filled with school children, a bomb which landed on a theater she had just exited and being a spy in North Africa in the 1950¡¯s. Though the techniques had been perfected in Thailand, if we had been able to use the same therapies in America, Barbara could have been treated here, and not pushed back on a waiting list because of her age. Jason was just 36. As a teenager, he was given steroids because he was shorter than expected given his family members¡¯ sizes. The steroids caused bone deterioration, until, at 25, it was discovered that he only had 30% of normal bone density after a slight fender-bender shattered three of his vertebrae. When stem cell research came to a screeching pause in America, some researchers were working on using stem cells to rebuild bones as well as spinal cords. Eleven years of osteoporosis medications and pain medications did irreparable damage to his vital organs. Last month, after a hospitalization for his failing kidneys, he collapsed. His entire medical nightmare, his unendurable pain, his confinement to his parents¡¯ house because he could barely ride in a car, his loss of everything that we consider normal for a young man, all took place while America diddled around with stem cell research.
These are just two of the thousands of people who could have been saved with stem cells in the past decade, and there are millions now living with drugs and pain and impairment who could live normal lives with stem cell therapy. Beyond the loss of access to abortions, beyond the closure of clinics for women¡¯s health, beyond the murders of doctors, nurses and aides at clinics, beyond all the direct results, these thousands of deaths and millions of suffering human beings are the price of allowing a group of fanatics to determine the shape and manner of our medical care.
¡¡
¡¡