Sydney, Sept 30: Ever heard of designer arteries? A new technique will enable heart patients, diabetics and people suffering kidney failure, to grow designer arteries inside their own bodies.
According to a report in Herald Sun, early human trials on the revolutionary technique, pioneered by University of Queensland couple, Julie and Gordon Campbell, are expected to start next year.

Professor Julie Campbell said pieces of artery up to 40cm long could be grown within a matter of weeks and then used in bypass operations, to help people with diseased, damaged or blocked blood vessels.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Tests on dogs, rabbits and rats had proved extremely successful and her team had managed to grow blood vessels 25cm long inside the abdominal cavity of large dogs.

Campbell said that in humans the length would be tailored to how big a graft was needed to bypass damaged or blocked sections of artery.



The breakthrough avoided rejection problems because the new arteries were made from the patient's own cells.

National Heart Foundation director of health, Professor Andrew Tonkin, described the trials as a major breakthrough.


"It is a very original and innovative approach Bureau Report