Marching towards engineered blood vessels

University of Melbourne researchers have developed a fast, inexpensive, and scalable method for engineering blood vessels from natural tissue. By combining multiple materials and fabrication technologies, the researchers developed a method to create blood vessels with complex geometries like native blood vessels.

Illness and dysfunction in blood vessels can result in life-threatening disorders such as heart attacks, strokes and aneurysms, making cardiovascular disease the number one killer globally.

Associate Professor Heath said researchers around the world have been trying to perfect blood vessel tissue engineering for many years.

While bypass surgery has proved a life-saving alternative for replacing severely damaged blood vessels, it has limitations, particularly for smaller diameter blood channels such as the coronary artery. Non-living synthetic grafts can cause blood clotting and obstruction, making them unsuitable in some circumstances. As a result, patients who have limited options due to past surgery or comorbidities such as diabetes face significant problems.

To overcome these limitations, the researchers investigated developing 'tissue-engineered' blood vessels, which are made from human cells and tissues. These created vessels have the potential to treat cardiovascular illness, as well as construct built-in blood supply for larger tissue creations.

Reference: Spontaneous Orthogonal Alignment of Smooth Muscle Cells and Endothelial Cells Captures Native Blood Vessel Morphology in Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, DOI 10.1021/acsami.3c08511