U.S. scientists create world's first 'living' brain aneurysm outside the human body
For the first time, researchers in the United States have duplicated a living brain aneurysm outside the human body — a feat that could potentially alter the ways in which brain surgeons treat the condition.
© Provided by National Post Using 3D printing, an LLNL team replicated an aneurysm in vitro and performed an endovascular repair procedure on the printed aneurysm, inserting a catheter into the blood vessel and tightly packing platinum coils inside the aneurysm sac.
It is hoped the move could reduce the time taken to decide and perform life-saving surgical procedures personalized to each patient, and so improve survival rates and patient outcomes.
An aneurysm looks like a bulge or balloon in a weakened point on the wall of a blood vessel, either in the heart or the brain. If the wall ruptures, it can lead to internal bleeding with life-threatening consequences for the patient. Aneurysms are especially difficult to both find and treat, given the delicate areas where they commonly occur.
Now, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and scientists from Duke University and Texas A&M, have developed an external, artificial duplicate in the hopes of imitating the real-life environment in which aneurysms occur.
“We looked at the problem and thought that if we could pair computational modelling and experimental approaches, maybe we could come up with a more deterministic method of treating aneurysms or selecting treatments that could best serve the patient,” William Hynes, senior study author and engineer at the laboratory, told Science Alert.
Using gelatin-fibrin hydrogel, the team 3D-printed a structure in the shape of an aneurysm and then carefully added hCMECs — human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells — to the frame. The cells spread out over the next seven days and lined the aneurysm structure, forming a living 3D-printed aneurysm.
It is hoped the move could reduce the time taken to decide and perform life-saving surgical procedures personalized to each patient, and so improve survival rates and patient outcomes.
An aneurysm looks like a bulge or balloon in a weakened point on the wall of a blood vessel, either in the heart or the brain. If the wall ruptures, it can lead to internal bleeding with life-threatening consequences for the patient. Aneurysms are especially difficult to both find and treat, given the delicate areas where they commonly occur.
Now, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and scientists from Duke University and Texas A&M, have developed an external, artificial duplicate in the hopes of imitating the real-life environment in which aneurysms occur.
“We looked at the problem and thought that if we could pair computational modelling and experimental approaches, maybe we could come up with a more deterministic method of treating aneurysms or selecting treatments that could best serve the patient,” William Hynes, senior study author and engineer at the laboratory, told Science Alert.
Using gelatin-fibrin hydrogel, the team 3D-printed a structure in the shape of an aneurysm and then carefully added hCMECs — human cerebral microvascular endothelial cells — to the frame. The cells spread out over the next seven days and lined the aneurysm structure, forming a living 3D-printed aneurysm.
© LLNL A blood clot forming in the aneurysm structure proved the model a success.
Once the living structure was created, the team experimented on it by pumping cow blood plasma through the structure and then performing their own endovascular coiling — an operation in which a catheter is threaded through the body, to the aneurysm, via an artery in the groin. Once threaded, a coil is pushed through the catheter into the aneurysm. It is one of two methods by which doctors attempt to stop blood flow to the area of an aneurysm to prevent it from swelling and rupturing.
As a result of the coiling, a clot was formed at the site and disrupted blood flow, which meant the model worked.
“Now we can start to build the framework of a personalized model that a surgical practitioner could use to determine the best method for treating an aneurysm,” Hynes said.
There is still a long way to go before the model can be used by professionals in the field, the team stressed in its paper. The computer model of clots still needs to be finessed to both refine the living structures and better mimic the stresses placed on the walls of the impacted blood vessels.
The team also plans to feed real-world patient brain scans into the data to further refine the system’s accuracy.
Once the living structure was created, the team experimented on it by pumping cow blood plasma through the structure and then performing their own endovascular coiling — an operation in which a catheter is threaded through the body, to the aneurysm, via an artery in the groin. Once threaded, a coil is pushed through the catheter into the aneurysm. It is one of two methods by which doctors attempt to stop blood flow to the area of an aneurysm to prevent it from swelling and rupturing.
As a result of the coiling, a clot was formed at the site and disrupted blood flow, which meant the model worked.
“Now we can start to build the framework of a personalized model that a surgical practitioner could use to determine the best method for treating an aneurysm,” Hynes said.
There is still a long way to go before the model can be used by professionals in the field, the team stressed in its paper. The computer model of clots still needs to be finessed to both refine the living structures and better mimic the stresses placed on the walls of the impacted blood vessels.
The team also plans to feed real-world patient brain scans into the data to further refine the system’s accuracy.
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