BiotechMashup

Researchers have developed a bandage that stimulates and directs blood vessel growth on the surface of a wound. The bandage, called a "microvascular stamp," contains living cells that deliver growth factors to damaged tissues in a defined pattern. After a week, the pattern of the stamp "is written in blood vessels," the researchers report.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Researchers have developed a bandage that stimulates and directs blood vessel growth on the surface of a wound. The bandage, called a "microvascular stamp," contains living cells that deliver growth factors to damaged tissues in a defined pattern. After a week, the pattern of the stamp "is written in blood vessels," the researchers report.

Tissue engineering has long held promise for building new organs to replace damaged livers, blood vessels and other body parts. However, one major obstacle is getting cells grown in a lab dish to form 3-D shapes instead of flat layers. Researchers have now come up with a new way to overcome that challenge, by encapsulating living cells in cubes and arranging them into 3-D structures, just as a child would construct buildings out of blocks.

Researchers in Japan have developed a ground-breaking new aqueous reagent which literally turns biological tissue transparent. Experiments using fluorescence microscopy on samples treated with the reagent have produced vivid 3-D images of neurons and blood vessels deep inside the mouse brain. Highly effective and cheap to produce, the reagent offers an ideal means for analyzing the complex organs and networks that sustain living systems.

(American Physiological Society) When muscles and organs are deprived of an adequate supply of oxygen, the body's usual responses include increased circulation and slight drop in blood pressure in the blood vessels serving the affected tissue. However, the blood vessels in the lungs react differently: blood pressure in the lungs rises, often with deleterious effects on the lungs' tissue/heart. Dr. Shimoda's work focuses on why this happens and whether it's possible to treat the condition using available drugs.

(RIKEN) Researchers at RIKEN, Japan's flagship research organization, have developed a ground-breaking new aqueous reagent which literally turns biological tissue transparent. Experiments using fluorescence microscopy on samples treated with the reagent, published this week in Nature Neuroscience, have produced vivid 3D images of neurons and blood vessels deep inside the mouse brain. Highly effective and cheap to produce, the reagent offers an ideal means for analyzing the complex organs and networks that sustain living systems.

Researchers have been working on growing tissue and organs in the laboratory for a long time. Today, tissue engineering enables us to build up artificial tissue, although science still hasn't been successful with larger organs.

Researchers have grown arteries that exhibit the elasticity of natural blood vessels at the highest levels reported to date, a development that could overcome a major barrier to creating living-tissue replacements for damaged arteries. The team used smooth muscle cells from adult baboons to produce arteries containing approximately 20 percent as much of the protein elastin -- which allows vessels to expand and retract in response to blood flow -- as an inborn artery.

(Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) Researchers have been working at growing tissue and organs in the laboratory for a long time. These days, tissue engineering enables us to build up artificial tissue, although science still hasn't been successful with larger organs.