Tracheal Neoplasms

Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology (NSDQ:HART) said last week that it learned of the death of a Russian patient implanted with its artficial trachea, but wasn’t informed of the cause of death. The patient, implanted 2 years ago with a trachea grown using HART’s bioreactor technology, was participating in a clinical trial in Russia, according to a press release. HART said it learned of the death from the study’s principal investigator. "The patient survived more than 2 years from the initial regenerated trachea transplant surgery that took place in 2012," HART said. "Prior to that surgery, the patient had suffered several instances of life-threatening respiratory failure and infections. The patient was indicated for the initial transplant surgery because there was both a progression of the respiratory failure and traditional tracheal surgery was impossible." Other patients implanted with the artificial trachea, grown using a patients own cells which are seeded onto a porous plastic scaffold, have fared much better. It’s been 6 years since the 1st patient, Claudia Castillo, was implanted with an artificial trachea; last year a follow-up study published this month in the journal The Lancet revealed that Castillo was "living normally without any complications or rejection of the implanted airway" 5 years on. Last month HART CEO David Green told MassDevice.com that news of the Castillo procedure prompted him to get in on the game. HART predecessor Harvard Bioscience eventually launched a commercial version of the bioreactor researchers used to grow the bronchus. "Typically, the old trachea is narrowed, so the patient’s having difficulty breathing. Usually, that’s because there’s a tumor, like a trachea cancer growing in the throat, or because there’s tracheal stenosis, which means a narrowing of the trachea caused by some kind of physical damage," Green told us. "Typically, it starts with a road accident, and that’s what leads to the physical damage of the trachea. One of those 2 things, either physical damage or a trachea cancer, is what causes the patient to need this kind of transplant."

HOLLISTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Effective today, Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:HART), a biotechnology company developing regenerative medicine therapies, initially for trachea cancer, has begun trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol HART after being spun off by Harvard Bioscience, Inc. Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology (HART) was created to bring the life-saving therapies pioneered at Harvard Bioscience to patients. HART’s regenerative technology has been used in ten successful human airway transplants to date. HART’s first therapeutic product, the InBreath TM Airway Transplant System, uses a synthetic plastic scaffold in the size and shape of the patient’s natural trachea that, prior to surgery, is seeded with the patient’s own bone marrow cells in a specialized bioreactor. Because the system uses the patient’s own bone marrow the body does not reject the new organ, making anti-rejection medications following this type of transplant unnecessary. The first two of these surgeries were “world firsts” and were published in The Lancet, one of the most respected peer-reviewed global medical journals. Help employers find you! Check out all the jobs and post your resume.