World-first 3D-printed windpipe with living cells implanted in Seoul patient

Surgeons implanted a custom 3D-printed trachea scaffold into a woman in her 50s in Seoul, using CT and MRI data to produce a graft just under 5 cm long that was printed in less than two weeks and placed during a half-day surgery. Multiple reports name Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital as the treating center and describe a scaffold reinforced with polycaprolactone (PCL) and infused with cell-containing bio-inks.

The implant combined bio-inks carrying living cells with a biodegradable PCL structural scaffold. One report states the device was made from “nasal stem and cartilage cell-infused bio-ink” reinforced with PCL for strength, while another says the transplant used “Stem cells and cartilage cells obtained from other patients... along with polycaprolactone (PCL) for structural support.” The polyester-type polymer PCL is reported to have about a five-year lifespan, a window researchers described as “more than enough time for the patient’s natural tissues to regenerate.”

Early clinical signs reported at six months are encouraging. “Within just six months, doctors observed healthy blood vessels forming around the implant — a sign that the patient’s body was accepting and regenerating the tissue naturally,” wrote Bioethicseducation. Other outlets reported the woman “is understood to be recovering well, with blood vessels even starting to form around the implanted cells.” One source added, “Notably, the patient did not require immunosuppressants post-transplant.”

Accounts diverge on a key technical point: the provenance of the cells used in the bio-inks. Bioethicseducation reports the trachea was “built from the patient’s own cells” and that “No immunosuppressant drugs were needed.” By contrast, Science Focus and a March 16, 2024 report on the procedure state the graft was “partly made from another person’s stem cells,” and 3dprinting explicitly reports donor-derived stem and cartilage cells were incorporated. That same 3dprinting piece also states the patient did not require immunosuppression, a clinical detail that raises follow-up questions about immune matching and protocol.

Project partners named across reports include T&R Biofab, Catholic University of Korea, and Gachon University, with multiple outlets crediting Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital as the clinical site. One brief attribution linked the operation to surgeons associated with Seoul National University Hospital, a discrepancy that has not been reconciled in the published accounts.

The teams highlight speed and customization as differentiators: CT and MRI imaging to size the graft, printing in under two weeks, and implantation in a half-day surgical session. Observers also note outstanding hurdles. Reports caution that PCL’s finite degradation timeline, production scaling and regulatory approvals remain to be addressed before the technique can move beyond single cases, and that long-term outcomes past the six-month vascularization milestone are not yet available.

Public discussion has framed the work as a landmark or “world-first” step toward organ printing; one commentator put it bluntly: “A woman just received a 3D-printed windpipe — and it’s alive. Oh, and her body is growing a real one in its place.” The immediate technical facts—custom ~5 cm graft, bio-inks plus PCL, printed <2 weeks, half-day surgery, six-month angiogenesis—mark a clear advance, but the conflicting details on cell sourcing, hospital attribution and regulatory context will determine how rapidly this moves into broader clinical practice.