Blood vessels grown from patient's skin

New York, Oct 9 (UNI) In a scientific breakthrough, scientists have managed to grow blood vessels from human tissues, a report said.

The development will now help the ailing patients to have blood vessels grown out of their own tissues and later implanted to restore blood flow in the damaged arteries and veins, the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Cytograft Tissue Engineering of Novato, California, made the vessels which takes six to nine months. As they are derived from patients' own cells, they eliminate the need for antirejection drugs. And because they are devoid of any synthetic materials or a scaffolding, they avoid complications from inflammatory reactions.

Doctors in Argentina have performed the first human tests of the vessels on six patients.

Cytograft says its helpful for patients with damaged blood vessels from diabetes, arteriosclerosis, birth defects and other problems.

''This technique has a big potential in the vascular surgical field,'' Dr Toshiharu Shinoka, who directs pediatric cardiovascular surgery at Yale, said.

''A potential benefit may be there for infants and children with congenital heart defects,'' Director Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco Dr Deepak Srivastava was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

Dr McAllister of Cytograft estimated the cost of treatment to be 15,000 to 25,000 dollars but added that the price would be likely to fall with wider use.

Cytograft has applied to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to conduct tests of the vessels in the United States.

UNI