The results are encouraging, with the bioengineered vessels proving more durable and just as safe as commonly used synthetic grafts when implanted into patients undergoing kidney dialysis.

Due to the frequent needles involved, ongoing dialysis can damage a patient's blood vessels, and grafts are often necessary. The problem is that existing techniques, including synthetic and other bioengineered grafts, are often prone to infection or being rejected by the body. And there is also a waiting period for bioengineered vessels tailor made using a patient's own cells.

A team, made up of researchers at Duke University, Yale University and the tissue engineering company Humacyte, grew bioengineered vessels in the lab that contain no living cells, then implanted them into 60 patients who require dialysis due to kidney failure, with results suggesting they perform better than synthetic alternatives.