Stories about the promise of artificial blood vessels often include the phrase "could eventually" or "might someday." This story does not.
Blood vessels have been made from a patient's own skin cells, a first that lowers the odds of a harmful immune reaction that can arise when foreign materials are used. The work was done in patients receiving kidney dialysis, a procedure of removing, filtering and reloading a patient's blood that typically involves implanting a small blood vessel between a vein and an artery.
To grow the blood vessels, researchers harvested skin cells, grew them on a sheet, then rolled it up and let it all grow some more. Then they removed the cells that spurred the growth.
[Read the Full Story at Science Now]
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{{ video="080207-dangerousblood" title="Bagged Blood Danger" caption="Surprise: Transfusions of stored blood may kill you. But there's a fix. Credit: ScienCentral.com" }}
