3D printed patch helps improve blood flow

Ischemia – the blocking or restriction of blood vessels - can cause loss of function in limbs and organs leading to heart attacks, strokes and gangrene. While larger vessels can be treated with surgery, smaller vessels are more complex.

The team, which included medical professionals and engineers, developed a 3D printed patch with embedded endothelial cells, the type of cells that line the interior of blood vessels. Not only did the patch result in the growth of new vessels - known as angiogenesis - the researchers were actually able to give structure to the growth, helping the vessels operate more effectively.

"Therapeutic angiogenesis, when growth factors are injected to encourage new vessels to grow, is a promising experimental method to treat ischemia," said Professor Christopher Chen from Boston University College of Engineering.

"But in practice, the new branches that sprout form a disorganised and tortuous network that looks like a sort of a hairball and doesn't allow blood to flow efficiently through it. We wanted to see if we could solve this problem by organising them."