Reduce Risk of Transplant Rejection With New Medtech

2017: the year of the world’s first-of-its-kind bone tissue transplant.

How a host body will react is one of the biggest concerns with transplants, grafts, or transfusions. When it comes to bleeding edge medical tech, these concerns magnify.

Could lab-grown tissue reduce rejection risks?

A Successful Human Trial

We recently published an article about negative trials, yet this clinical trial was anything but negative. A patient at Emek Medical Center received a revolutionary bone tissue transplant. How so? Well, the bone itself was grown in a lab.

A History of Complications; A Future of Innovation

The biological reason for transplant rejections is fairly simple: the body attacks foreign or previously unrecognized entities.

Despite various tests to mitigate rejection risks, transplants can still fail. MHC–major histocompatibility complex proteins–is the reason for most transplant failures and rejections. So how did this organic lab-grown bone tissue medtech transplant circumvent this?

They used tissue from the patient receiving the transplant!

Bonus Biogroup of Haifa developed tissue engineering technology that utilized fat cells from a patient with severe bone loss. 

Eleven patients in an early-stage clinical trial had the liquid tissue (made of their own fat cells) injected into their jaws. The liquid tissue hardened in a matter of months, merging with existing bone to repair previous bone loss.

A Zero Percent Chance for Rejection?

As with many medtech advancements, people question the bold claims of the tech. Could this medical technology really eliminate the risk of rejection?

Despite these reasonable doubts, Dr. Nimrod Rozen, head of Orthopedic surgery at Emek Medical Center, had this to say: “The technology we developed allows us to grow a bone that is based on a patient’s biological tissue, so there is no danger that the patient’s body will reject the implant.”

Due to the tissue being injectible, this means easier tissue grafts. The greatly reduced recovery time for receiving patients is another added bonus.

“The special features of the implants enable preservation of cell properties during implantation and the creation of a high-quality bone functioning in the transplanted area…” Rozen says.

How do you think the injectable lab-grown tissue will perform over time? Could this medtech be another step toward regenerative organ treatments?