Michael Olausson (B.L. Rosvall, Univ. of Gothenburg)
Researchers at University of Gothenburg in Sweden created a blood vessel from stem cells and then used it in a successful operation on a 10-year-old girl. Michael Olausson (pictured right) , the surgeon and professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy — the university’s health sciences faculty — created a new connection between the liver and the intestines with the aid of this blood vessel.
During her first year of life, the girl developed a blood clot in the blood vessel that leads from the intestines to the liver, which risked that she would experience internal bleeding, a life-threatening condition. To cure the condition, the blood needed to be directed along the correct path, back into the liver.
Transferring a blood vessel from another part of her body was an option, but if that was not successful, it would have required a risky liver transplant. The transplant would then have involved for the patient lifelong treatments with drugs to prevent her body from rejecting the new tissue.
In this case, the team instead acquired a blood vessel from a dead donor. The vessel was then chemically treated to remove all of the cells’ RNA and DNA, leaving just the supporting tissue. Stem cells were then obtained from the girl’s bone marrow, which were added to the supporting tissue.
The researchers report that a new blood vessel grew on the supporting tissue in just under four weeks. The surgeons then used the new blood vessel during the surgery in order to create the necessary connection between the liver and the intestines, and replace the vessel with the blood clot.
Olausson says the surgery, carried out more than three months ago, was a success and the patient encountered no serious complications. “The girl is in good health, and we believe that her prognosis is very good,” he adds. “Since the vessel was created with the girl’s own stem cells, she does not need to take drugs to prevent rejection.”
Read more: Company Tests Stem Cells Creating Liver Cells in Animals
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Would love to know if this is something that could possibly help a 5 year old child with Tetralogy of Fallot and severe pulmonary stenosis!
Thanks for your comment and readership of Science Business. That’s a question only a physician can answer. But see our story Patients Get Lab-Grown Blood Vessels From Donor Skin Cells on 27 June. There’s a company in California that is making the technology more feasible. Good luck. – Alan