Pig Cells Used to Grow New Arteries in Lab

An experiment with pig cells and a machine that mimics the pulse of the heart shows that new, living arteries can be grown in the laboratory to replace diseased vessels, an important step in the developing field of making new body parts, researchers said.

Dr. Laura A. Niklason of Duke University, leader of the research team that made the pig arteries, said the vessels “are indistinguishable from the native structure.”

Niklason, first author of a study that appears today in the journal Science, said that although the experiment used pigs, it demonstrated that it is fundamentally possible to grow new arteries to replace those that have become clogged or blocked by heart disease. She said engineered, living arteries may someday be used in human heart bypasses instead of the leg veins that doctors now use.

A number of labs are now experimenting with tissue culture techniques designed to grow new body parts. Some have grown ligaments, tendons, bone and even a new ear. But Niklason said her experiment was different because the incubation machine rhythmically pumped nutrients through the developing cells, imitating the pressures from a beating heart.

This pulsation, she said, increased the strength of the finished artery and made it last longer when it was transplanted.