Longevity science

Scientists have created artificial vascular networks for use in lab-grown organs, using sugar.

Before large three-dimensional human organs can be grown, scientists must figure out a reliable way of incorporating blood vessels into them – if the lab-grown organs simply take the form of a block of cells, the cells on the inside won’t be able to receive any nutrients, and will die.

Now, a team from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT has devised a way of building such vessels, using sugar. The scientists use a relatively inexpensive open-source RepRap 3D printer, which extrudes molten sugar...

Doctors in Sweden have replaced a vital blocked blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using the first vein grown in a lab from a patient's own stem cells.

The successful transplant operation, reported online in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, marks a further advance in the search for ways to make new body parts.

It could open the door to stem cell-based grafts for heart bypass and dialysis patients who lack suitable blood vessels for replacement surgery, and the Swedish team said it is now working with an undisclosed company to commercialize the process.