Inventions that change the future of organ transplantation

Organ transplant is a marvelous achievement of medicine, helping many patients escape the death sentence. New achievements of science and technology continue to help this industry develop.
Currently, many parts of the grafted body are successful such as kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, cornea, liver, small intestine, face . However, many of the problems that transplant technology is facing are Sources of organs, post-transplant inhibitors . Below are directions that may change the future of human organ transplantation.

Generate organs from stem cells

In April 2013, Hannah Warren, a 2-year-old girl, had a tracheotomy, becoming the sixth person in the world to transplant organs derived from stem cell technology.

The 9-hour surgery was carried out by Dr. Paolo Macchiarini (Stockholm, Sweden). Previously, he had performed several airway transplants from stem cells (taken from the main bone marrow who needed to be transplanted) to form a biopsy. Although the success rate of surgeries is not high, this is the last hope for patients.

This is a cell that has the ability to convert into many other types in the body, so after transplanting, they can interact with the new environment and develop into appropriate tissues corresponding to the grafted organ.

This measure will provide healthy organs to replace the patients' own damaged organs. It also contributes to solving other problems of organ transplants such as the type of graft waste, the expensive cost of using anti-organ rejection drugs .

Artificial organ transplantation

The solution of organ scarcity is the study of artificial organ production.

Scientists have initially created artificial organs to temporarily replace important organs with impaired functions such as the heart and kidneys while patients wait for real organs to transplant. Increasingly, artificial organs are improved to have a longer life after transplanting and hopefully replace the damaged organ completely.

Record, patients with artificial heart transplant can survive nearly 4 years before being replaced by human heart. Out-of-body artificial kidneys have long been used worldwide for dialysis for patients with chronic kidney failure without conditions or no longer indicated for transplantation. However, scientists are testing transplanted artificial kidneys in the body.

3D printing technology is applied to create new parts such as ears, nose, tendons . replacing damaged components.

Eliminate the problem of organ transplant rejection

The dilemma of organ transplantation is that the body always has an immune response to the organ transplant and the patient must take an ongoing immunosuppressive drug. Recently, new research directions have been conducted by scientists at the Center for Organ Transplant Research at Massachusetts General Hospital (USA). Researchers have applied the unprecedented method, which is to conduct concurrent organ transplantation with the bone marrow, T-lymphocyte-forming organ, leading role in the fragmentary reaction. graft. The bone marrow and the grafted organ of the same person will create immune tolerances that make it easier for the body to accept the grafted organ without or with very little rejection.

Although there are not many cases of organ transplantation under this method, scientists hope that in the future, it will be widely applied and highly effective.

The organ preservation machine lives outside the body

The organs, especially the lungs, are damaged very quickly after the patient dies. It is estimated that 15% of patients who die have the ability to get their lungs of sufficient quality to transplant. To solve this problem, in 2008, Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, a thoracic surgeon, and colleagues at the University of Toronto successfully built a machine capable of preserving donor lungs, with time To assess quality, increase lung transplant capacity for many people. This machine can store lungs for 16 hours, the future may increase by several days.

Technology for copying 3D agencies

Despite being in the experimental phase, researchers say 3D printing technology can be applied to create new agencies to replace damaged components.

The agencies will be scanned to determine the structure and size then copied in 3D. The implant will be made with human cells combined with biological materials. This technology is very suitable for creating parts such as ears, nose, muscle tendons or other tissues in the body such as bone, bronchial air.