Originally published June 28 2005
Bio-engineered cells could lead to lab-grown heart bypass blood vessels
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Duke University researchers have used a technique of inducing old cells to grow like that of a newborn, which could be an important step toward making personalized blood vessels for patients needing a heart bypass procedure, Forbes reports.
A bio-engineering technique of making old cells young again could make it possible to grow made-to-order blood vessels for cardiac bypass surgery patients, a new study suggests.
Cells taken from leg veins of four men, ages 47 to 74 years old, have been induced to grow like cells from newborns, Duke University researchers report.
That could be an important step toward making personalized blood vessels for people who need bypass surgery but whose own blood vessels are too fragile to be used in the operation, said Dr. Laura Niklason, leader of the research group.
The old cells were made to grow like young ones by interfering with the process by which the body eventually makes cells stop dividing, said Niklason, associate professor of anesthesiology and biomedical engineering at Duke.
The Duke researchers made cells feel young by adding a molecule, telomerase, that prevents telomere clipping.
The eventual goal of the research project is to grow saphenous vein cells on a tube, then use the resulting vessels for bypass procedures, Niklason said.
Heart bypass surgery is used to create a detour around the blocked part of a coronary artery to restore blood supply to the heart.
An estimated 100,000 of the 1.4 million Americans who need small vessel grafts are unable to get them because their own or prosthetic vessels are unsuitable, the Duke researchers said.
First, the cells now being grown in the laboratory aren't strong enough because they do not produce enough collagen, a structural protein.
Because the unchecked growth of cells is the very definition of cancer, "we are looking at modification of the telomerase enzyme so that we can turn it off after a brief period of time," Niklason said.
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