Regenerative Medicine - Pioneers

Pioneers

At the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in North Carolina, Dr. Anthony Atala and his colleagues have successfully extracted muscle and bladder cells from several patients' bodies, cultivated these cells in petri dishes, and then layered the cells in three-dimensional molds that resembled the shapes of the bladders. Within weeks, the cells in the molds began functioning as regular bladders which were then implanted back into the patients' bodies. The team is currently working on re-growing over 22 other different organs including the liver, heart, kidneys and testicles.

Dr. Stephen Badylak, a Research Professor in the Department of Surgery and director of Tissue Engineering at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a process which involves scraping cells from the lining of a pig's bladder, decellularizing (removing cells to leave a clean extracellular structure) the tissue and then drying it to become a sheet or a powder. This cellular matrix powder was used to regrow the finger of Lee Spievak, who had severed half an inch of his finger after getting it caught in a propeller of a model plane. As of 2011, this new technology is being employed by the military to U.S. war veterans in Texas, as well as to some civilian patients. Nicknamed "pixie-dust" the powdered extracellular matrix is being used with great success to regenerate tissue lost and damaged due to traumatic injuries. For example, a 19-year old male patient who lost a significant amount of tissue on his heel after a fall from a cliff received two applications of the extracellular matrix powder at Kaiser Hospital in Roseville, California. His heel successfully regenerated, avoiding the necessity of bone and skin grafts, as well as other reconstructive surgery.

In June 2008, at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Professor Paolo Macchiarini and his team, of the University of Barcelona, performed the first tissue engineered trachea (wind pipe) transplantation. Adult stem cells were extracted from the patient's bone marrow, grown into a large population, and matured into cartilage cells, or chondrocytes, using an adaptive method originally devised for treating osteoarthritis. The team then seeded the newly grown chondrocytes, as well as epithileal cells, into a decellularised (free of donor cells) tracheal segment that was donated from a 51 year old transplant donor who had died of cerebral hemorrhage. After four days of seeding, the graft was used to replace the patient's left main bronchus. After one month, a biopsy elicited local bleeding, indicating that the blood vessels had already grown back successfully.

In 2009 the SENS Foundation was launched, with its stated aim as "the application of regenerative medicine – defined to include the repair of living cells and extracellular material in situ – to the diseases and disabilities of ageing."

In 2012, Professor Paolo Macchiarini and his team, improved upon the 2008 implant by transplanting a laboratory-made trachea seeded with the patient's own cells.