Techshot has invented a process for manufacturing large human blood vessels using a patient’s own stem cells. Developed with $1.15 million in funding from two consecutive R&D contracts from the Pentagon’s Defense Health Program, the method produces vessels that are expected to initially benefit soldiers with severe injuries to their extremities. Soon after, they should to be available to anyone who, through trauma or disease, needs replacement arteries and/or veins.
“The widespread use of high explosives in current nontraditional battlefields has led to significant increase in extremity injuries,” said Techshot Chief Scientist Eugene D. Boland, Ph.D. “In 2011, it was reported that sixty seven percent of wounds were to the limbs, with severe soft-tissue, bone and vascular injuries. And because most suffered multiple injuries, autologous, or “spare” vessels harvested from the patient’s own uninjured arm or leg, were unavailable which led to high amputation rates.”
