First Laboratory-Grown Windpipe Transplanted into Patient

The first successful transplant of a synthetic windpipe grown from a patient’s own stem cells has saved the life of a 36-year-old man, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene of Eritrea.

The operation was performed on June 9, 2011, at Karolinska University Hospital in (KUH; Stockholm, Sweden) by a team of surgeons headed by Prof. Paolo Macchiarini, MD, of KUH, and included, among others, Prof. Tomas Gudbjartsson, MD, of Landspitali University Hospital (Iceland), and Prof. Alexander Seifalian, PhD, of University College London (UCL; United Kingdom), who designed and built the nanocomposite tracheal scaffold.


The patient’s stem cells were seeded onto a scaffold placed inside a special bioreactor developed by Harvard Bioscience (Boston, MA, USA) for two days before transplantation to the patient, and were used to regenerate a complete trachea. Since the cells used to regenerate the trachea were the patient’s own, there has been no rejection of the transplant, and the patient is not taking immunosuppressive drugs.

“He was already refused by every surgeon in the world, and they asked me whether there was a solution,” said Prof. Macchiarini. “He had no other chance, except to die, and therefore we did it.”

Transplantations of tissue engineered windpipes with synthetic scaffolds in combination with the patient’s own stem cells as a standard procedure would mean that patients will not have to wait any longer for a suitable donor organ. This would be a substantial benefit for patients, since they could benefit from earlier surgery and have a greater chance of cure. In addition to treating adult patients, tissue engineered synthetic trachea transplants could be of great value for children, since the availability of donor tracheas is much lower than for adult patients.

Related Links:
Karolinska University Hospital
University College London
Harvard Bioscience