Welcome back to our last installment on Harvard Apparatus. Today is all about what’s coming next for the patients influenced by the regenerative medicine that is enabled by Harvard Apparatus’ technology.

If they can make a synthetic trachea, why not another organ? Looking into the future, other hollow organs could be coming soon to a laboratory near you. Only a few thousand people a year are diagnosed with tracheal cancer or trauma, but the technology can be used in the future for other organs that impact more people. Once creating a synthetic trachea has been mastered scientists can look to other hollow organs, like the esophagus.

There are approximately twenty times more patients every year diagnosed with esophageal cancer compared to tracheal cancer. However, like tracheal cancer, esophageal cancer has a high fatality rate due to late diagnosis and thus limited ability to remove the tumors once identified. Unlike the trachea however, the esophagus contracts and expands very often. To date, there are no synthetic esophagi created, but basic research is making progress.

When it comes to solid organs, like the heart and the lungs there has only been one large development. At Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Harold Ott decellularized a rat lung, recellularized it and transplanted it back into a rat. The rat lived for two weeks after the transplant. This was a large breakthrough, but this process is a long way from becoming commercialized.

What about the United States? Are synthetic organ transplants approved? The doctor associated with Harvard Apparatus received approval from the FDA to perform the first US transplant of an artificial trachea. A little girl with tracheal agenesis—the lack of a part or a whole trachea, will receive a brand new artificial trachea. She will be given a second chance at living a normal life. With a clinical trial underway in Russia, and a first in man in the United States set for the future the commercialization of this surgery is more real than ever.

We hope you enjoyed our miniseries on Harvard Apparatus, and hope you stick around for the rest of our series on regenerative medicine. Until next time, tweet at us or comment here about what else you’d like to hear about from us!

Welcome back to our mini-series on the Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology group of Harvard Biosciences. We’re here to explore the advancements made using the technologies by Harvard Biosciences. Pairing up with a world leading surgeon, four synthetic tracheal transplants have been conducted to date. The benefit of using a synthetic transplant is that the organ will essentially be off the shelf, there’s no waiting and matching a donor required. Thousands of people a year die waiting for transplants of various organs. Also, the mechanism for transplant of a synthetic organ as opposed to a donor organ doesn’t differ.

But why start with the trachea? The trachea structurally is a relatively simple organ. Without the bronchi the trachea is a hollow tube shaped organ with no complex nerve involvement. This makes the creation of a synthetic trachea relatively easier than other organs. Also, tracheal cancer is usually fatal since the diagnosis is normally too late for tumor removal. The trachea also does not involve contracting muscle movement.

The first transplant came from the decellularization of a donor trachea followed by the recellularization with the patient’s own stem cells. However, the next four transplants were made synthetically. The second and third transplants occurred on cancer patients. The organs were created using electro spinning. The first patient treated with a synthetic scaffold is still alive with his new trachea and living a normal life that without the trachea he wouldn’t have had. The second synthetic patient unfortunately passed away from complications from prior chemotherapy, but he was granted a second chance at a normal life with his new trachea.

The fourth and fifth surgeries were successfully performed recently on trauma patients as a part of a clinical trial in Russia.

With the technology provided by Harvard Apparatus, researchers are planning strategies that will provide people with a better quality of life after their transplant. But where can we go from here? Check back in for our last post on what’s next for the technology of Harvard Apparatus. Let us know what you think about the changes Harvard Apparatus is making in people’s lives @TRA360!