Stem cells used to rebuild 10-year-old Brit boy's windpipe

London, Mar 20 (ANI): Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors have carried out a surgery to rebuild the windpipe of a 10-year-old British boy using stem cells developed within his body.

In an operation Monday lasting nearly nine hours, doctors at the centre implanted the boy, who has a rare condition called Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis, with a donor trachea, or windpipe, that had been stripped of its cells and injected with his own, reports The BBC.

Over the next month, doctors expect the boy's bone marrow stem cells to begin transforming themselves within his body into tracheal cells.

Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis is a condition in which patients are born with an extremely narrow airway.

Professor Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, who was part of the team behind the operation, said it was a "real milestone".

"It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway that has ever been replaced.

"I think the technique will allow not just highly specialised hospitals to carry out stem cell organ transplants." (ANI)