Surgeons Implant Lab-Grown Blood Vessel into Dialysis Patient

Researchers have developed a bioengineered blood vessel and successfully implanted it into the arm of a dialysis patient, according to a Duke Medicine press release. The procedure was part of a 20-patient phase I trial designed to test the vessel’s safety. The new vein is an off-the-shelf product with no biological properties that might cause rejection. Investigators engineered it by cultivating donated human cells on a tubular scaffold to form a vessel. They then cleansed the vessel of the qualities that might trigger an immune response. In preclinical tests, the veins have performed better than other synthetic and animal-based implants.