The disease atherosclerosis involves the narrowing and eventual blockage of blood vessels. When this occurs in the heart it results in a diminished blood supply to this vital organ, which can lead to symptoms of angina or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart-attack. A heart bypass is a major surgical procedure that attempts to circumvent this blockage. About 3 million open-heart coronary-bypass and peripheral artery-bypass operations are carried out each year around the world. However, around 20% of patients who need this surgery are unable to undergo the procedure due to poor status of arteries or a co-existing illness making the risk too great.
Another approach is to insert a wire through an artery in the leg, feeding it up to the narrow blood vessels and deploying a stent; a tube-like structure that keeps the vessel open. New research is focusing on sophisticated stents coated with specially engineered cells. These cells can release signals into the local environment to encourage the growth of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. It is hoped that these new blood vessels may be able to bypass a blocked artery thus restoring blood flow to the tissue without the need for open-heart surgery.
Before these stents can be tested in humans it is essential to meticulously investigate their effectiveness and safety in the laboratory. The aim of this project is to design a robust, ex-vivo model of a human blood vessel in which these experimental stents can be analysed for angiogenic potential.
