A joint grant from the Silesian Medical University, the Department of Pediatric Surgery in Zurich and the Wroclaw University of Technology aims to grow human cartilage tissue individually selected for each fetus with spina bifida.
Great opportunity for children with spina bifida
Published Aug. 6, 2025 06:53
- Such a tissue could be applied during prenatal fetal spina bifida closure surgery to the cleft portion of the spinal column after the spinal cord and spinal nerves have first been unanchored and the cleft neural plate covered with a tire. This would significantly modify and improve the surgical technique, as well as provide a chance to improve the results of treatment," says Agnieszka Pastuszka, MD, head of the Department of Descriptive and Topographical Anatomy, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze.
ŚUM's role in the first stage is to collect, isolate and culture amniocytes obtained from amniotic fluid during prenatal surgeries and during cesarean sections in fetuses with prenatally diagnosed spina bifida. - In case of positive results of cartilage tissue culture, the next step will be to cover the cleft spinal fragment with cultured tissue in the fetus and during prenatal surgeries," adds Agnieszka Pastuszka, MD.
Source: Silesian Medical University
