[airborne]

Help me understand this.

They grew a whole new windpipe, or they regrew his?

Or did they use a partial transplant and augment it with his own stem cells?

No matter what, this is wonderful news!!

[metmom]

Or did they use a partial transplant and augment it with his own stem cells?

That's what I read it as.

They made some kind of framework, like a structural skeleton, and added his own stem cells which will adhere to and grow on the structure.

[neverdem]

"The replacement trachea - the bony tube that connects the nose, mouth and lungs - was stripped of the donor's cells to leave a scaffold which was then laced with the child's stem cells."

They probably soak the donor trachea in a solution of proteases, enzymes that dissolve proteins, to remove any antigens so as not to provoke an attack with antibodies or other elements of the immune system. The scaffold is probably just decellularized hyaline cartilege, IMHO.