A bioengineered blood
vessel implant in his arm has potentially given a 62-year-old Virginia man a
new lease on life, after years of dialysis for end-stage kidney failure....
Building
a Bioengineered Blood Vessel
Researchers at Duke and an affiliated bioengineering
company called Humactye built the blood vessel by growing human smooth muscle
cells on a tube-shaped biodegradable mesh scaffold. The structure was immersed
in a bath of vital amino acids, with pulses of energy pumping nutrients in a
heartbeat rhythm mimicking the physical forces that shape natural blood vessel
growth.
The resulting collagen vein structure was then rinsed
in a solution to wipe away biological cell properties that could trigger an
immune response, leading to organ rejection.
Making the blood vessel nonreactive can allow it to be mass-produced in
a matter of months, said the researchers, saving the time and energy that it
would take to harvest an individual patient's own cells to seed a personalized
vein structure.
The Virginia patient
marks the first American participant in a phase one clinical trial approved by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which will ultimately include 20 kidney
dialysis patients….
The Duke researchers' nonreactive bioengineered blood
vessels could represent a significantly more stable alternative to the more
than 320000 Americans who require dialysis for kidney failure, or
end-stage renal disease.
Such bioengineered blood vessels could also be
developed into implants for heart bypass surgeries, which over 415000 Americans undergo each year, and replacements for other
blocked veins and arteries.
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