(File photo)

Chinese scientists made a major breakthrough in repairing lungs with stem cells, according to a report by Reuters. The groundbreaking research was done by a team at the Center for Stem Cell Engineering Translational Medicine at Shanghai East Hospital, a hospital affiliated with Tongji University.

The clinical experiment was mainly based on a patient with interstitial lung disease, and started five years ago. According to the research team, the experiment had a significant curative effect on the patient.

Ren Tao, the chief physician at the hospital’s department of respiratory medicine, said the cells were cultivated outside the body to reinforce them, and these cells were used as seeds for new cells. Zuo Wei, a stem cell regeneration researcher and a professor at Tongji University, said regenerating lung cells to repair lungs has never been done before. “We are now the first institute to have implemented its regeneration of the cells in the lungs and repaired their tissues,” he said.

The cells are cultivated from stems cells extracted from the patient. They can repair the tissues of the lungs without any rejection reactions. This means the body part can repair itself.

According to the report by Reuters, the research team has obtained a number of patents in China and results of their research have been published in the top medical journal Nature.