"Mini-heart" for poorly functioning veins

Researchers at George Washington University, working under the guidance of Professor Narine Sarvazyan, have developed an alternative artificial organ for returning blood to the heart from veins that do not have normally functioning valves.

This organ is a rhythmically contracting cuff of muscle cells covering the vein, acting as a "mini-heart" that maintains stable blood flow in the affected fragment of the vessel. To create such a cuff, the patient's own adult stem cells can be used, which eliminates the possibility of developing a rejection reaction.

This fundamentally new approach can be used to solve the problem associated with a widespread chronic disease – chronic venous insufficiency. This disease is more common in developed countries and can affect up to 20-30% of people over the age of 50. The veins of the lower extremities are most susceptible to it. Disorders of venous blood flow can also develop as a complication of diabetes mellitus, as well as in patients who have suffered a stroke or are recovering from surgery.

The authors have already demonstrated the functionality of their development in the laboratory and plan to conduct experiments on animals.

They believe that it is a serious breakthrough, indicating the possibility of developing a new direction of regenerative therapy, which will be based not on the restoration of organs, but their creation.

Narine Sarvazyan's article Thinking Outside the Heart: Use of Engineered Cardiac Tissue for the Treatment of Chronic Deep Venous Insufficiency is published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of George Washington University:
GW Researcher Invents ‘Mini Heart’ to Help Return Venous Blood.

01.04.2014