Chinese scientists produced the world's first genetically-engineered human blood vessel cells, providing a promising option for therapeutic use.
The study published on Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell showed that human vascular cell function can be enhanced by editing a single longevity-related gene.
Scientists from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Peking University and the Institute of Zoology of CAS targeted a gene called FOXO3, an important regulator to delay cellular aging, resist stresses and enhance cardiovascular balance.
Compared with those of wildtype cells, the genetically-enhanced vascular cells could efficiently promote vascular repair and regeneration, increasing resistance to oxygen-causing injury, according to the study.
The technique can also resist the cells' transformation into tumors. The risk of tumor transformation used to be a major concern for the application of the gene-editing technology.
The researchers tested it in a mouse model with blood-shortage or ischemic injury and found that those cells promoted vascular regeneration and resisted tumor transformation both in vitro and in vivo.
They expected to use gene-editing strategies in the future to produce high-quality, safe human vascular cell grafts in a large-scale and standardized manner. (Xinhua)
Scientists from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Peking University and the Institute of Zoology of CAS have generated the world's first genetically enhanced human vascular cells by targeting a single longevity gene, FOXO3. The...
Recently, scientists from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University have worked jointly and established the first single-cell transcriptomic atlas of primate arterial aging. Using the single-cell transcriptome sequencing technology,...
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