title: Blood vessels engineered from human cells.
abstract: Tissue engineering has made considerable progress in the past decade, but advances have stopped short of clinical application for most tissues. We postulated that an obstacle in engineering human tissues is the limited replicative capacity of adult somatic cells. To test this hypothesis, the effectiveness of telomerase expression to extend cellular lifespan was assessed in a model of human vascular tissue engineering. Telomerase expression in vascular cells isolated from elderly patients enabled the successful culture of engineered autologous blood vessels. Engineered vessels may one day provide a source of bypass conduit for patients with atherosclerotic disease.
authors.affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poh
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Solan
authors.forename: Shannon L M
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pedrotty
authors.forename: Soma S R
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Banik
authors.forename: J Andrew
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.forename: Rebecca Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Klinger
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Counter
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Niklason
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000201:enzymology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D012501:Saphenous Vein / Q000166:cytology; D019098:Telomerase / Q000096:biosynthesis; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D019098:Telomerase