Researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute are developing a method to use the vascular network in spinach leaves to deliver blood, oxygen and nutrients to grow human tissue. Spinach grows a network of veins, for instance, that thread through its leaves in a way similar to blood vessels through a human heart. The tissue engineers, as they reported recently in the journal Biomaterials, stripped green spinach leaves of their cells. The scientists seeded the gaps that the plant cells left behind with human heart tissue. “Long term, we’re definitely envisioning implanting a graft in damaged heart tissue,” he said.

Source: Washington Post March 27, 2017 07:41 UTC