The emergence and pitfalls of international tissue banking
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The emergence and pitfalls of international tissue banking Glyn O. Phillips
Received: 15 March 2018 / Accepted: 17 April 2018 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract The rapid growth of tissue banking and associated international organisations following the fall of the Berlin wall in 1991 is described. This surge in collaboration led to a world-wide constructive movement to use and to produce human tissues. As the years progressed industrialisation, led by the USA, improved the quality of tissue allografts but led higher costs and consolidation within the developing industry. The growth of litigation more than kept pace with the industrial progress. One landmark case is described, the outcome of which could revolutionise the current practices now applied to eliminate possible viral contamination of implanted tissue grafts. Keywords EATB IAEA Radiation sterilisation Tissue grafts Tissue banking
Formation of an international community A political and physical barrier divided the countries of middle Europe at the end of World War II in 1945 right up to the end of the cold war in 1991. The fall of this ‘‘Iron Curtain’’ was probably the most important single factor in the development of tissue banking into
both a science and a business, world-wide. The Soviet Union had blocked itself and satellite states it controlled from open contact with the West. Discontent in Poland, which continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania eventually led to the demolition of the Iron Curtain. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its ‘‘Checkpoint Charlie’’ which served as a symbol of the Curtain as a whole. It is significant, therefore, that it was in Berlin that the first truly international conference on the subject was held in October 24–26, 1991, immediately after the wall came tumbling down. It was a glorious occasion and more than just a scientific meeting. There were 280 participants there from 10 countries. East met West for the first time and yes there was joy but also an awakening for the whole subject. The obvious conclusion was that there was much more experience in the countries of East Germany in the subject. This was probably due to the more liberal approach to tissue procurement in the hitherto totalitarian controlled countries.
G. O. Phillips (&) Phillips Hydrocolloids Research Ltd (Wales and China), 2 Plymouth Drive, Radyr, Cardiff CF15 8BL, Wales, UK e-mail: [email protected]
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Cell Tissue Bank
There was a call for an organisation which would keep Europe together without barriers in the subject and a Steering Committee was formed to draw up a plan of action (photograph). Through the courtesy of Dominique Poitout a meeting was quickly held in sunny Marseilles. I recall the meeting vividly, probably because of the stream of lovely bathing ladies which seemed endlessly to pass the window of our meeting room! Despite the temptations, the European Association of Tissue Banks (EATB) was
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