Electronic blood vessels made from a combination of metal and plastic could be used to replace arteries damaged by cardiovascular disease.
Xingyu Jiang at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, and his colleagues created their artificial vessel by printing a layer of liquid metal ink, containing gallium and indium, onto a flexible, biodegradble polymer membrane. The liquid metal functions as an electrode.
They then rolled up the polymer into a cylinder to create an artificial blood vessel about 2 millimetres wide.
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The team showed that in a lab setting, sending electrical pulses to the electrode stimulated living endothelial cells – which line the inside of blood vessels – to gather and proliferate on the inside of the artificial vessel. Engineered blood vessels that encourage this process are less likely to result in blood clots, the researchers say.
The artificial vessel could also be made more permeable by applying an electrical field to it – a process known as electroporation – allowing it to deliver drugs to neighbouring cells. The researchers were able to use electroporation to deliver a green, fluorescent protein to blood vessel cells surrounding the artificial vessel.
To test how well the electronic blood vessels would work in the human body, they were implanted in six New Zealand rabbits, replacing their two carotid arteries, which supply blood to the brain and face. Two rabbits were used as controls.
The team monitored the artificial vessels over three months and found that during this time they allowed sufficient blood flow to the brain and face, and didn’t produce an inflammatory response.
Using angiography, an x-ray technique that visualises the flow of blood inside vessels, the team found that the artificial vessels functioned as well as natural carotid arteries, with no sign of them narrowing in diameter.
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