'Milestone moment' as boy undergoes transplant to regenerate trachea

A British boy has undergone a groundbreaking operation involving the transplantation of a windpipe that is being regenerated inside his body using his own stem cells.

Scientists described the procedure, carried out on Monday at Great Ormond Street Hospital, as a “milestone moment” in the development of techniques that could allow people to rebuild damaged or transplanted organs inside their bodies.

The operation, which lasted nearly nine hours, involved the removal of the boy’s faulty trachea — the bony tube that connects the nose, mouth and lungs — which was replaced with a donor windpipe.

The organ had been stripped of the donor’s cells to leave a fibrous collagen scaffold that was injected with the child’s stem cells.

The boy, who is aged 10, received the transplant hours later. Doctors said that the stem cells would begin to transform themselves into internal and external tracheal cells within his body over the next month. They added that their patient, whose identity is being protected, was doing well, breathing normally and speaking.

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