HealthOnTrack

The year has barely begun and already we’re looking at one of the most highly significant medical breakthroughs not only of 2012, but also in history. Researchers and scientists at Cambridge University have worked tirelessly over the past four years to find a way to grow three of the most significant cells that make up the walls of blood vessels.

The brilliance of this breakthrough means more lifesaving measures for people with heart diseases. This recent medical breakthrough affords doctors with the opportunity to use generated blood vessels in heart surgery, as opposed to riskier operations. The medical community believes these “blood vessels” can also be used to treat patients needing kidney dialysis, or trauma patients. The vessels could be created in a laboratory by scientists and then a medical courier used to ensure the vessels are transported in the correct conditions. They need to be treated with the utmost care because their mere existence and sustainability is phenomenal.

How the breakthrough occurred: Researchers, using skins cells from patients, successfully manufactured various types of vascular smooth muscle cells. They tested and re-tested the technique and found it to be 90% effective in producing the vessels on an industrial scale. Glaringly, one type of blood vessel will not be effective on all patients so researchers are now working on making arteries, and different types of blood vessels.

This is a revolutionary medical breakthrough and doctors are extremely excited about the potential. There are plethoras of ways in which this new breakthrough can be utilised. Some surgeons have suggested the vessels could be used to grow arteries in test tubes, or stem cells from the vessels can be injected directly into the heart allowing them to form within. This medical news is outstanding for so many patients.

The potential for this amazing medical breakthrough is vast and hugely exciting from everyone from the researchers to people working in medical logistics. It’s also the latest and great news of 2012 for people suffering from heart disease who perhaps felt they had nowhere else to look for answers.