The patient carried a prosthetic jaw in his stomach for 9 months

Finnish scientists have transplanted a man's upper jaw obtained from his own stem cells. For nine months, the transplant was grown in the patient's stomach, ABC News reports (Finnish patient gets new jaw from own stem cells, 02.02.2008).

To create the jaw, specialists from the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Tampere used stem cells obtained from the adipose tissue of a 65-year-old patient. For two weeks they were cultured in a special nutrient solution, after which the so–called mesenchymal stem cells were isolated - immature cells from which bone tissue, muscles and blood vessels can form. The cells were transferred to a special three-dimensional carrier substrate made of biomaterial (calcium phosphate), and placed in the patient's stomach for nine months.

The resulting graft contained not only bone tissue and muscles, but also blood vessels, the researchers reported. During the operation, the graft was attached to the patient's skull, and the arteries and veins were connected to the vessels of the neck using microsurgical techniques. The patient's own jaw was previously removed due to a benign tumor.

Currently, the patient is rapidly recovering, the head of the study, Riitta Suuronen, said at a press conference. "It is impossible to guess from his appearance that he has undergone such a procedure," she said.

The success of specialists from Finland opens up new ways of treating severe tissue damage and makes the prospect of creating organs "to order" more realistic, the researchers believe.

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Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru04.02.2008