Cells from humans grow blood vessels in mice

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Cells taken from human bone marrow, bloodand umbilical cords grew into functioning blood vessels in micewith just the right coaxing, U.S. researchers reported on Saturday. The so-called progenitor cells teamed up to form working bloodvessels that connected to the circulatory systems of the mice, theteam at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Bostonreported.

"What's really significant about our study is that we are usinghuman cells that can be obtained from blood or bone marrow ratherthan removing and using fully developed blood vessels," saidHarvard's Joyce Bischoff, who led the study.

Her team used immature cells, known as progenitor cells, grownunder special lab conditions before being implanted into mice. Onceimplanted, the cell mixture grew and differentiated into a smallball of healthy blood vessels, they reported in the journalCirculation Research, published by the American Heart Association. They used endothelial progenitor cells, which mature into cellsthat line the blood vessels, and mesenchymal progenitor cells,which differentiate into the cells that surround the lining andprovide stability.

A mixture of cells from adult blood and bone or from umbilical cordblood worked the best, they said. They hope to find a way to help the body replace blocked or damagedblood vessels, such as arteries blocked in a heart attack orstroke.

"What we are most interested in right now is speeding up thevascularization," Bischoff said in a statement. "We see very goodand extensive vasculature in seven days and we'd like to see thatin 24 or 48 hours. If you have an ischemic tissue, it's dyingtissue, so the faster you can establish blood flow the better."