September 26, 2000

1 min read

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Growing Replacement Blood Vessels

By Kate Wong

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Blood vessels raised in tissue culture may one day help heal broken hearts. According to initial results presented yesterday at the BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology World 2000 conference in Ohio, researchers have taken the first steps toward growing replacement blood vessels in the laboratory for transplant into the bodies of heart attack victims.

The grand plan envisioned by Ohio State University investigator Nicanor Moldovan and his colleagues entails sowing cells harvested from vessel lining, or endothelium, in silicon molds shaped like capillaries. The resulting cultivars would then be delivered to the heart via microscopic machines called "angiochips." Once inside, they could begin to repair the damage caused by a heart attack. "We probably couldn't bring tissue back in its original form, but we could try to revascularize it, to make a heart beat again," Moldovan surmises, "or at least keep the heart tissue from dying by creating new capillaries that would provide blood and oxygen as soon as possible."

So far the researchers have cleared the first hurdle: demonstrating that the seed cells can grow two-dimensionally in grooves carved into a soft, clear gel. Although the plan is extraordinarily complex, Moldovan remains hopeful. "We've had to deal with a lot of speculation or supposition, but our approach appears to be a very promising one," he remarks. "Once we have proof that we can grow cells in specific three-dimensional shapes on or inside silicon, then we hope to come back to the tissue."

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

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