New Delhi, June 15: A Swedish team, led by an Indian-origin doctor Dr. Suchitra Holgersson has successfully transplanted a vein, grown into the laboratory, into the body of a 10-year old girl from her own stem cells.

The girl had a blockage in her extrahepatic portal vein, which was obstructing blood supply to her liver, a news report said.

Doctors had the option of liver transplant or taking a vein graft from the umbilical cord of a donor, which would have led to lifelong dependence on immunosuppressants.

“We took a 9-centimetre graft from a deceased donor and removed all its cells, leaving a hollow piece of vein. After that we extracted stem cells of two types from the bone marrow of the girl — endothelial and smooth muscle cells — gave it necessary growth factors, and let it keep warm for two weeks,” Dr. Suchitra, a professor in the department of transplant and regenerative medicine at Sahlgrenska Science Park in Gothenburg University, was quoted as saying.

Dr. Suchitra, who is a graduate of Mumbai University, had moved to Sweden for an M.Sc. She is working on on transplant medicine for 25 years and her team see the success of the procedure as an example that would pave the way for manufacturing other blood vessels and, eventually, organs.