Breakthrough in bid to grow blood vessels in the lab

Scientists are a step closer to making ‘off the shelf’ veins and arteries which could revolutionise treatment for heart attacks and strokes. A team at Cambridge University has managed to grow all three main types of cells which make up the walls of a blood vessel. They say the breakthrough could help create blood vessels in the laboratory for surgeons simply to implant into patients – as an alternative to heart bypass treatment and stenting. One in three deaths in Britain is caused by cardiovascular disease, as a result of blood vessels narrowing or becoming blocked by fatty deposits. Test tube blood vessels could also be used to treat kidney dialysis patients and leg bypasses, and to fix damaged arteries after accidents for those who might otherwise lose a limb. The researchers used patients’ own skin cells to make different types of vascular smooth muscle cells. Dr Sanjay Sinha, who worked on the discovery for four years said: ‘This research represents an important step towards being able to generate the right kind of smooth muscle cells to help construct these new blood vessels. ‘We are very excited about its potential. They could be used to build an artificial artery in a test tube or the stem cells could be injected straight into the heart and they could form within it.’ A biotechnology firm in California managed to grow whole blood vessels in a lab for the first time last June and implanted them into three kidney dialysis patients. But the Cambridge team say they are the first to grow multiple types which could have more medical uses. Dr Sinha added: ‘One type of blood vessel will be not suitable for everything. ‘We are looking at making arteries and now we have the tools to engineer all different types of blood vessels which are appropriate for each patient.’ They said their technique was 90 per cent effective in tests and would be suitable for producing blood vessels on an industrial scale, according to the study published in Nature Biotechnology. Unlike some previous attempts to build veins the new technique does not need plasma – usually taken from animals which can contain chemicals toxic to humans. Therefore the method has few health risks and a lower likelihood of being rejected by the patient’s body, Dr Sinha said.