London: In what could soon revolutionise
bypass surgery, scientists have invented an artificial artery,
resembling a short piece of spaghetti, which they claim would
reduce the risk of a heart attack during the operation.
Professor Alexander Seifalian of University College
London,who led the British team which created the clot-busting
coating, said up to 30 per cent of patients in need of a heart
bypass do not have a suitable vein they can use.
"In these cases, there`s not much doctors can do and
patients often die. So we have developed an artificial artery
using nanotechnology. Once the stem cells are attracted to it,
they cover the whole inside of it and turn into endothelial
cells," he was quoted by the `Daily Mail` as saying.
The clot-busting blood vessel is to be trialled on
heart disease patients this year. And, if successful, it could
vastly improve the results for many who undergo surgery every
year to widen blocked and narrowed arteries.
According to the scientists, the new device is made
from a polymer flexible enough to pulse like a normal blood
vessel. Inside, it has a revolutionary coating of millions of
tiny spikes, each thousands of times smaller than the width of
a human hair.
Created using nanotechnology, the study of controlling
matter on an atomic and molecular scale, the spikes attract
stem cells or "master cells" from the blood. Once inside the
artery, cells grow and fuse into an endothelium, the lining in
blood vessels. This stops clots from forming.
PTI