COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Over the past two decades, drug advancements for cardiovascular disease have dramatically slowed.
But a team at Texas A&M is working to address this need. A research team has developed a 3-D bio-printed blood vessel.
The vessel mimics the vascular function and disease response in order to better understand ailments.
The team is hopeful that the models will give experts a better understanding of what happens to a vessel when diagnosed with cardiovascular disease; as well as one day implant them into human patients.
"The second application is to use these blood vessels to implant them into patients for replacing their existing broken vessels," said Akhilesh Gaharwar, associate professor, Texas A&M Department of Biomedical Engineering." So if a person has any high blood pressure or clotting in a clogged vessel then we can re-engineer these vessels and implant them in the patient and act as a new vessel for the person."
Vascular diseases like aneurysms and clotting account for 31 percent of global deaths.
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