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.
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