Original spare parts

Russian doctors are involved in an international project to grow new organs directly in the patient's body to replace the affected ones

More recently, medical science and the art of the surgeon approached organ transplantation. But life puts forward new requirements: how to make sure that the transplanted organ is not rejected? Today, the patient after transplantation has a life sentence...

More recently, medical science and the art of the surgeon approached organ transplantation. But life puts forward new requirements: how to make sure that the transplanted organ is not rejected? Today, after a transplant, a patient has to be on expensive treatment for life: medicines reduce immunity, which fights against foreign tissue. And with a decrease in immunity, a person becomes susceptible to any infection ...

Regenerative medicine - the creation of a living, functioning tissue or organ from a patient's own stem cells - is at the forefront of science. But the first steps have been taken and beyond the edge - into practice. Italian surgeon Professor Paolo Macchiarini, head of the Department of Regenerative Surgery and Biotransplantation at the University Hospital of Florence, transplanted for the first time a trachea grown in a bioreactor from the patient's own stem cells on a donor scaffold. This first step was taken in 2008. Professor Macchiarini took the second step a year ago: the trachea was formed inside the patient's body without the use of a bioreactor. In July 2010, this technique was used to completely replace a trachea affected by a cancerous tumor. After this fantastic operation, Macchiarini and Russian cardiac surgeon Sergei Dzemeshkevich, director of the Russian Scientific Center for Surgery. Petrovsky of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, signed an agreement on joint scientific and clinical work in this direction.

“This cooperation is a scientific project,” explained Mikhail Paltsev, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, First Vice President of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. “So far, this is not a mass, not a purely clinical technology, but it is very good that we are not just borrowing ready-made technology, but are getting involved at the development level. The letter of intent signed between Macchiarini and Dzemeshkevich provides Russia with an important chance to join the European consortium for regenerative medicine along with Italy, England and Sweden. Russian Scientific Academic Center of Surgery named after A.I. Petrovsky is a worthy and reliable partner. Excellent scientific base, well-equipped operating rooms and laboratories. There are many young people here who want to work and learn from the most advanced technologies and participate in their development.”

Cardiac surgeon Professor Sergei Dzemeshkevich, Director of the Russian Scientific Center for Surgery named after A. Petrovsky is careful with the press: “What we agreed on with the famous Italian surgeon has nothing to do with the hype around stem cells used by medical merchants. The first thing I did when I became director of the surgical center was to clean up the stem cell lab. At least it's not a surgical problem. On the other hand, he created a genetic laboratory, the work of which is important for every major operation and for how to manage a postoperative patient ”But the prospect of a new breakthrough work captivates him:“ Regenerative surgery is what medicine has been striving for since ancient times - the use of the body’s own forces, only at the modern scientific level. There is a limit to the possibilities of chemistry - drug treatment, and radical surgery is also not omnipotent. It is necessary to change something inside the body, to stimulate it to work in alliance with the doctor. We tried to move in this direction back in the 1960s and 1970s. But now there are more opportunities to work at the cellular level.

Our surgeons will participate in a number of operations in Europe, then we will put such a trachea in our center for our patients. But our surgical center is multidisciplinary. And, perhaps, the application of the method after joint refinement will be wider than we currently think.

It is important for Russia to get involved in such work not as catching up partners, but as partners. Macchiarini looked at the operating rooms of the Center for Surgery, observed the progress of coronary artery bypass grafting, and then visited the genetic laboratory and said that there was nothing to stop us from starting joint work. The class of what he saw, he assessed as very high. In addition, two patients with hearts transplanted by cardiac surgeon Dzemeshkevich (the author and developer of the first successful operation in Russia, a complete anatomical human heart transplantation) have been living in Russia for 21 years.

Precisely because the achievements of Russian medicine are little known in the world, and sometimes our results are not trusted, Dzemeshkevich considers it important to work together with European scientists at the forefront of world science.

Sergei Leonidovich is sure that humanity has no greater scientific interest than man. It is here that the cutting edge of fundamental science.

Disease history.

Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Italian woman, had tuberculosis, as a result of which her left bronchus became obstructed. Scientists took the trachea of ​​a recently deceased person, removed all the cells that can cause rejection. Only an inert frame of collagen fibers remained from the donor organ. On this frame, cells taken from Claudia from the inner layer of the trachea, as well as stem cells from her bone marrow, were grown in a bioreactor, in fact, a “native” organ.

After four days, the transplanted trachea was difficult to distinguish from neighboring sections of the respiratory tract. A month later, she grew her own blood supply network. Two and a half years have passed, and Claudia leads a healthy lifestyle.