Girl Breathes On Own With Stem Cell Engineered Wind Pipe
A two and a half year old girl has become the youngest recipient of a bioengineered wind pipe, made from her own stem cells. Born without a trachea, she had relied on an tube to breathe. Clinicians and scientists engineered a biodegradable plastic implant, which was then seeded with her own bone marrow stem cells. Once tissue matured in a bioreactor, surgeons transplanted the trachea, enabling her to breathe on her own for the first time. While the procedure does not have FDA approval, the scientists remain optimistic that further successes could lead to widespread treatment.