Born in 1987, Diletta Trojan is Director of the Banca dei Tessuti Foundation of Treviso as well as the first Italian woman to chair the EATCB (European Association of Tissue and Celle Banks). He is also President of the Young Scientific Board of SIMCRI (Italian Society of Multi-specialty Regenerative Medicine and Surgery). His personal story is that of a “brain on the run” from Italy. We interviewed her on the occasion of the SIMCRI Youth Congress, «Innovation in Regenerative Medicine», which will be held on October 30th.
Doctor what are tissue banks and how do they work?
“Banks are both public and private non-profit health facilities that collect, process, evaluate, cryopreserve and distribute human tissue for transplantation. In total there are about thirty scattered throughout the Peninsula. I work in Treviso and we are a multi-tissue bank, that is, the only ones authorized by the Ministry of Health and the National Transplant Center to manage multiple types of tissues, such as cardiovascular ones. These are cryopreserved at -190 degrees in containers with nitrogen vapors. An organ cannot be left in a bank, because it must be transplanted immediately. Conversely, it is possible to do this with fabrics that, according to the law, must be deposited in a bank. In this way we are able to carry out numerous and indispensable checks to verify their safety and quality “.
What other types of fabrics do you usually deal with?
“Those musculoskeletal which include all types of bone, tendons or nerves. They are used, for example, for the reconstruction of cruciate ligaments. We then guard the placenta and umbilical cord that are provided to us by living donors. From these we also extract the amniotic membrane and the cord for the bypass. All these fabrics are stored and then distributed where necessary, both in Italy and abroad “.
Why is the Treviso health facility important?
“Until 2011 we were a simple unit of the hospital in the Venetian city. Then in agreement with the Health Authority we became a non-profit Foundation and therefore a non-profit organization. In less than 10 years, the Treviso bank has become the largest bank in Italy and more than 6,000 interventions with human tissues are carried out in one year. We receive donations from various hospitals in which appropriately trained transplant network operators work, who propose donations to patients. For cadaver donations, however, the matter is much more complex, as there are more stringent selection criteria and more complicated procedures. Nonetheless, we manage to have over 200 cadaveric donations, thanks to an excellent Transplant Network. In total, around thirty professionals work in the Treviso tissue bank, including medical, nursing and biologists. We are often called, even in the middle of the night, for urgent cardiac or vascular surgery. So our availability is 24 hours a day. With air transport we are able to distribute fabrics throughout Italy as soon as possible to patients who are victims of serious accidents and who need our help ”.
How was your job during the first months of the pandemic?
“In the first months, Covid-19 caused many difficulties also because our territory was one of the most affected by the first wave. We had problems because in Veneto, as well as in other regions, there was a block of non-urgent interventions. As a result, living donations have slowed dramatically. We were able to guarantee the same almost all types of tissues apart from valves, because they had a very long waiting list, especially for pediatric patients. We also had to implement a whole series of additional controls to ensure the absence of Covid in tissues and donors “.
How is our country positioned at the European level?
“Italy is undoubtedly at the forefront of the Old Continent as regards the activity of textile banks. The objective data that put us in the first places together with Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom say so. They often call us from abroad ”.
How are relations with the Italian Society of Multi-specialty Regenerative Medicine and Surgery?
“SIMCRI has had the great merit of involving, as a scientific society, a tissue bank in its research activities. It was a far-sighted intuition of the president Eugenio Caradonna and of Prof. Michele Angelo Farina. Indeed, our activities are closely related to cells and regenerative surgery. There are a number of tissues that are able to restore functions and therefore fall under the concept of ‘regeneration’. This is the case with tendons. Other tissues, on the other hand, such as the amniotic membrane, are used to cover ulcers or the skin of severe burns. These are tissues rich in cytokines that favor epithelialization, pain reduction and infection reduction “.
From a personal point of view, how was the path that led you to Treviso?
“I studied Biology in Padua and I wanted to be a researcher. So I specialized in Paris but then, for personal reasons, I returned to Italy. However, I was unable to find interesting career opportunities. I specialized in stem cells and I learned that the Treviso bank was looking for a person who had also had experience as a researcher. So in 2013 I was hired. I believe that doing advanced research in Italy is really complicated, but the ‘brain drain’ must return sooner or later. Otherwise our country risks turning into a desert ”.