Blood component interactions with polysaccharide biomaterials for vascular applications.

在澳大利亚和西方世界，心脏病是人们的主要杀手。这主要是由于向心脏肌肉输送血液和营养物质的血管堵塞，这些血液和营养物质可以被替换或旁路，但体内天然血管的供应有限。组织工程实验室多年来一直试图开发用于此用途的血管，但没有取得重大成功。该应用程序计划了解一种常用的生物材料壳聚糖中所含的糖序列中的分子信号，这种生物材料可能用于合成血管移植物的构建。如果我们能理解血细胞是如何与这种生物材料相互作用的，我们或许就能在实验室里培育出血管。

Heart disease is the major killer of people in Australia and the Western world. It is due mainly to the blockage of vessels supplying the muscle of the heart with blood and nutrients, which can be replaced or by-passed but the supply of native vessels in the body is limited. Tissue engineering laboratories have been trying to develop blood vessels for this use for many years without significant success. This application plans to understand the molecular signals contained within the sugar sequences used in a commonly used biomaterial chitosan that may be used in the construction of synthetic vascular grafts. If we can understand how blood cells interact with this biomaterial, we may be able to develop a blood vessel in the laboratory.