Tools Used Part of Companys Broad Regenerative Medicine Offerings

CARLSBAD, Calif.–Invitrogen, part of Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE – News), a provider of innovative life science solutions, announced today that GIBCO cell culture media products were used in an experimental procedure to replace the trachea of a woman whose lung had collapsed. The procedure was reported in the November 19, 2008 issue of Lancet, in an article by Macchiarini, et al, entitled “Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway.”

Claudia Castillo, age 30, suffered a lung collapse as a result of long-term tuberculosis. Unable to care for her two children or perform simple tasks, Ms. Castillo’s only traditional option was to have a lung removal, a risky procedure with a high mortality rate. Transplant of the trachea, or windpipe, was not an option because that tissue is very prone to rejection by the immune system.

Instead, doctors recommended an experimental procedure to strip donor tracheal tissue of the markers that often are responsible for transplant rejection as well as epithelial and glandular cells and cartilage-producing chondrocytes to serve as a tracheal scaffold. Epithelial cells were taken from Ms. Castillo’s right bronchus to grow epithelial cells, and stem cells were isolated from her bone marrow and induced to differentiate into chondrocytes. The cultured cells were seeded onto the tracheal scaffold, housed in a bioreactor, and, within 24 hours, the cells had embedded into the scaffold. After four days in the bioreactor, the tissue-engineered airway was transplanted into Ms. Castillo to replace her damaged left bronchus.

Several GIBCO® products including DMEM, GlutaMAX™-I supplement, Keratinocyte-SFM and trypsin EDTA were used throughout the procedure to culture Ms. Castillo’s cells. In addition to these products, Invitrogen offers many other stem-cell specific products such as StemPro® MSC SFM, the first serum-free medium for the growth and culture of mesenchymal stem cells, StemPro® Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Kits, which include adult stem cells derived from adipose tissue, and MSC Differentiation Kits, which allow researchers to induce differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to either fat cells (adipocytes), cartilage cells (chondrocytes) or bone cells (osteocytes).

“We are committed to developing the highest quality solutions that will make advancements such as Ms. Castillo’s transplant possible,” said Joydeep Goswami, Vice President, Primary and Stem Cell Systems at Life Technologies. “We are especially pleased to have played a role in enabling this groundbreaking procedure that allowed her to regain her quality of life. Life Technologies looks forward to continuing to develop innovative tools to advance biological understanding and further the clinical applications of regenerative medicine.”

Ms. Castillo was discharged 10 days following the procedure. After four months, the grafted airway had seamlessly integrated into the surrounding tissues and had normal appearance and mechanical properties, as well as functioning vasculature. Ms. Castillo can now care for her children and enjoy a normal quality of life.