Windpipe Transplant Breakthrough

Surgeons in Spain  carried out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant in June 2008 - using a windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells.

The groundbreaking technology also means that tissue transplants can be carried out without the need for anti-rejection drugs. Five months later the patient, 30-year-old mother-of-two Claudia Castillo, was in perfect health.

She needed the transplant to save a lung after contracting tuberculosis. Her airways had been damaged by the disease. Scientists from Bristol helped grow the cells for the transplant and the European team believes such tailor-made organs could become the norm.

Read the BBC report here and watch an animation on the procedure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7735696.stm