A seven-year-old boy who suffered serious head injuries in a traffic accident last year has fully recovered, thanks to an engineered tissue that now takes up one sixth of his skull.
"The wound is healing well, and in just a few months, his skull will be almost the same as before," said Professor Cao Yilin, chief scientist of China's tissue engineering project, at the No. 9 People's Hospital in Shanghai.
Computerized tomography of the boy's skull shows the engineered tissue has filled up what was an egg-sized hole just months ago, and will keep growing with the child as an integral part of his body.
In a major breakthrough in China's tissue engineering research, Cao and his colleagues have created "human bones" by nurturing bone cells out of living stem cells taken from the human body, and bonded them with certain materials that are compatible with the human body.
To date, scientists have applied the world-leading technology to repair 20 bone injuries and congenital abnormalities.
The finding has shed light on the clinical use of tissue engineering research worldwide, according to J.P. Vacanti, a Harvard professor and founder of the modern scientific discipline.
The main ways to heal bone and flesh wounds include living tissue transplants from other parts of the patient's body or a donor, and transplanting artificially synthesized tissues, all reporting such defects as lack of resources, bodily rejection and subsequent infections.
(People's Daily January 18, 2003)
