Researchers have developed artificial blood vessels made using a person's own skin cells which could dramatically improve the results of organ transplants.
These new blood vessels are made from a patient's own tissues, which lowers the chance of a harmful immune reaction.
Normally, doctors typically harvest a piece of a vein from a patient to make a bypass called a shunt, but over time, these shunts often fail, forcing doctors to use shunts made with plastics and other synthetic materials that can trigger immune reactions or blood-flow problems.
Researchers led by Cytograft Tissue Engineering of Novato, California, came up with a method for growing replacement vessels using a patient's own cells. They start by harvesting skin cells growing these in a sheet. They then roll up the sheet into the shape of a tube.
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