Artificial Blood Vessels Grow On Nano-Template

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at MIT have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day lead to tiny engineered blood vessels. The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. The work focuses on vascular tissue, which includes capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels. The team has created a surface that can serve as a template to grow capillary tubes aligned in a specific direction. The cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells, not only elongate in the direction of the grooves, but also align themselves along the grooves. That results in a multicellular structure with defined edges — a band structure. Once the band structures form, the researchers apply a commonly used gel that induces cells to form three-dimensional tubes."

Comments

Tube-like structures

[Anonymous Coward]

Researchers dubbed these tube-like structures the "internets".

I can't wait for the Micheal Crichton thriller

[StefanJ]

It will have a simple title, like Vein , and be about a heroic surgeon who unearths the sinister truth behind a revolutionary new artificial blood vessel replacement technology, and after a long build up in which seemingly fully recovered trauma patients turn into super-powered . . .

. . . well, I'd write more, but there's a screenwriters strike on, and I don't want to come across as a scab.

How many more times?

[Cally]

MIT is not in charge of Gundam.