Patients waiting for life-saving organs — that's more than 120,000 in the United States — may soon have another option for a second chance at life.
Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology, a Boston-based regenerative-medicine company, is developing synthetic tracheas, a venture that it plans to pursue on a larger scale soon, according to MIT Technology Review.
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The tracheas are made using the patient's own stem cells, which are taken from bone marrow. The cells are grown on a scaffold made from fibers approximately one-hundredth the width of a human hair, which are then used to create a tube that is tailored to fit each patient.
HART is testing this new technique in Russia. It aims to continue tests in the European Union later this year, and eventually the United States.
HART developed the artificial tracheas in research labs, and plans to move the venture to a manufacturing facility. In 2008, HART's technology enabled the first-ever human transplant of a regenerative airway, and the company's current research has been applied during surgery four times so far.
Its work could one day lead to other synthetic organs such as kidneys and heart valves, according to MIT Technology Review. But HART isn't the only place developing this type of technology. Last September, surgeons at the University of Michigan saved a toddler's life with a 3D-printed lung splint. 3D-printing has been used to create other organs, as well, including skin tissue, bionic ears and artificial blood cells.
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