In a significant step toward restoring healthy blood circulation to treat a variety of diseases, scientists have developed a new technique and described a novel mechanism for turning human embryonic and pluripotent stem cells into plentiful, functional endothelial cells, which are critical to the formation of blood vessels….

…Endothelial cells form the interior “lining” of all blood vessels and are the main component of capillaries, the smallest and most abundant vessels. In the near future, the researchers believe, it will be possible to inject these cells into humans to heal damaged organs and tissues.
The new approach allows scientists to generate virtually unlimited quantities of durable endothelial cells — more than 40-fold the quantity possible with previous approaches. Based on insights into the genetic mechanisms that regulate how embryonic stem cells form vascular endothelial cells, the approach may also yield new ways to study genetically inherited vascular diseases. The study appears in the advance online issue of Nature Biotechnology.
“This technique is the first of its kind with serious potential as a treatment for a diverse array of diseases, especially cardiovascular disease, stroke and vascular complications of diabetes,” says Dr. Shahin Rafii, the study’s senior author. Dr. Rafii is the Arthur B. Belfer…

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Abundant Blood Vessel Cells from Stem Cells

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