Grafts Grown from Tissue of Dialysis Patients

PARIS—Dialysis patients have been successfully fitted with blood vessels engineered solely from their own living tissue, according to a study published in The Lancet.

As reported by AFP, cell-sheet biofabrication technique begins with a skin biopsy. Fibroblast cells are grown in a single-layer cell culture, rolled up like a carpet and chemically washed to remove living cells. The resulting tube-like membrane is then encased with another sheet of living cell tissue, and implanted in the patient.

Tested on 10 patients, the grafts could become a stable and inexpensive solution to a common problem in dialysis treatment, and were hailed as a "milestone" by researchers not involved in the trials.