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Injections of Hope: Doctors Promote Offshore Stem Cell Shots, but Some Patients Cry Foul By Brian Vastag, Special to The Washington Post | Tuesday, September 2, 2008; HE01 A vast human experiment is afoot. And no one is taking good notes. Fueled by demand from desperate patients, dozens of companies around the globe are peddling [...]
IN THE hierarchy of transplant surgery, replacing a bronchus (the passage from the main windpipe, the trachea, into a lung) does not sound difficult compared with, say, plumbing in a new heart. In fact, until a few months ago, it had never been attempted. The reason was not that the surgery itself would be hard, but that the tissue in question, which is the first line of defence against the bacteria and viruses that come with every lungful of air, has a remarkably active immune response. So active, indeed, that if you transferred part of an airway from one person to another, the resulting immunological conflict would probably kill the recipient. Since a weak bronchus, though debilitating, is seldom life-threatening, transplant surgeons have left well-enough alone.
