Lab-Grown Oesophagus Successfully Restores Swallowing Function in Pigs, Human Trials Planned Within Five Years
核心洞察
Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital (搜索) and University College London have successfully created lab-grown oesophaguses using pig scaffolds populated with recipient cells, restoring normal swallowing function in eight transplanted pigs.
The bioengineered organs developed functional muscle, nerves and blood vessels over six months, allowing transplanted animals to eat normally and grow at healthy rates.
Clinical trials in humans are planned within five years to treat children born with oesophageal atresia (搜索), a condition affecting 180 children annually who are born without a complete food pipe.
Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine by successfully creating lab-grown oesophaguses that restore swallowing function in pigs, paving the way for human clinical trials within five years. The research, conducted by teams at Great Ormond Street Hospital (搜索) (GOSH) and University College London (UCL), offers new hope for children born with oesophageal atresia (搜索), a condition where babies are born without a complete food pipe connecting their throat to stomach.
Addressing Critical Medical Need
About 180 children are born each year without a food pipe, requiring complex surgery to reconnect the tube so they can feed. In severe cases where the gap is too large, surgeons must lift up the stomach or use the patient's intestines to fill the void, leading to lifelong breathing and gastric problems and even raising cancer (搜索) risk.
"The oesophagus (搜索) is a really complex organ, without a blood supply from its own vessels, so it cannot be 'transplanted' in the way you might expect," said Prof Paolo De Coppi of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (搜索). "With the success of this research, we hope that we can successfully offer an engineered tissue alternative to children who desperately need it, within five years."
Innovative Bioengineering Process
The research team developed a sophisticated process using pig oesophaguses as scaffolds. They extracted porcine oesophaguses and stripped them of their original cells through decellularisation, while keeping the underlying support structure intact. The scaffold was then populated with muscle cells from recipient pigs, taken from small biopsies.
The cells were first multiplied in a laboratory before being injected directly into the scaffold. They were then placed in a bioreactor to allow vital growth fluids to flood the tissue for one week, during which the cells settled, spread, and adapted to their new environment over two months.
Successful Transplantation Results
In the study published in Nature Biotechnology, lab-grown oesophaguses were transplanted into eight pigs. All eight animals survived the first 30 days following transplant, and after six months, the lab-grown grafts had developed functional muscle, nerves and blood vessels.
The transplanted oesophagus (搜索) was able to contract and move food like a native food pipe, allowing the animals to eat normally and grow at a healthy rate. Five of the pigs survived for the entire six-month study period, demonstrating sustained functionality.
While some pigs developed narrowing of the food pipe over time, this was successfully managed through endoscopy, mirroring routine human clinical practice.
Clinical Translation Potential
The technology offers significant advantages for future human applications. Dr Marco Pellegrini, senior researcher at UCL and co-lead of the study, explained: "Our technology could allow us to build a child a new oesophagus (搜索), using their own cells, collected in a surgery they are having anyway, combined with a ready-prepared scaffold from pig tissue."
Because the graft would contain the child's own muscle progenitor cells, it would be recognised as their own tissue, meaning it could grow with them over time without risk of rejection and without the need for long-term immunosuppression.
Expert Assessment
Dusko Ilic, professor of stem cell science at King's College London, described the study as a "significant advance" in engineering replacement organs. "It moves the field beyond structural reconstruction toward functional integration," he said, though he noted that longer-term studies were needed to demonstrate correct function in children.
Andrew Barbour, an academic surgeon at the Frazer Institute (搜索) of the University of Queensland (搜索), praised the work: "The ability to generate an oesophagus (搜索) with the necessary components that also functions normally is impressive." He noted that while the grafts developed some scar tissue causing swallowing issues, this reduced over time, which is promising.
The research represents a major step forward in treating not only children with congenital oesophageal conditions but potentially adults with cancer (搜索) or other conditions affecting the muscular tube connecting throat to stomach.