Into the Breach

Our body is laced with a network of vessels – carrying blood to feed our tissues with oxygen and manage waste. Vessels range from the biggest tube, the aorta ,with a bore of a couple of centimetres, to the tiniest fibre-like capillaries with diameters narrower than a hair’s breadth. Vessels don't like to be handled, which can result in their walls collapsing. This makes reconnecting these tiny vessels – necessary for example during transplant surgery in babies or while restoring severed limbs – a challenge, even for the most skilled vascular surgeon. Now researchers have developed a gel that can be syringed as a solid layer where microvessels will join. The gel holds the tube structure in place for easier stitching. Once completed, a light shone on the gel turns it to liquid and it disperses. Pictured is a vessel joined in this way, showing blood flow is unimpaired (highlighted in orange).

Written by Lindsey Goff

Lindsey Goff

Editor-in-Chief

Formerly immunologist for Cancer Research UK, Lindsey has since moved into the field of scientific publishing. She looks after all BPoD editorial matters.

• Image from work by Daniel J. Smith and colleagues
• National Institutes of Health, Center for Cancer Research, Maryland, USA
• Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group
• Published in Nature Nanotechnology, November 2015