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Breakthrough

First Transplant of Synthetic Organ

Windpipe made from stem cells and 'scaffold.'

cheats/2011/07/08/first-transplant-of-synthetic-organ/transplant-synthetic-organ-windpipe-cheat_eeeuwx

Karolinska University Hospital / AP Photo

Surgeons in Sweden have successfully carried out the first synthetic organ transplant, implanting a lab-grown windpipe in a man suffering from cancer. A glass replica of the patient's windpipe was soaked in a solution of stem cells taken from his bone marrow and lining cells taken from his nose until the windpipe was fully formed. Apparently it's a quick process: A windpipe can be made in between two days and a week, and because it uses the patient's own cells, there's no risk of organ rejection.

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