MAKING cells immortal allows vigorous new tissues to be grown from a person’s own cells. The technique could improve the quality of a wide range of engineered tissues, from replacement arteries and corneas to skin grafts. But to avoid the risk of cancer, cells will have to be given only a brief taste of the elixir of life.
Nearly 100,000 patients a year in the US need surgery to bypass small arteries, for instance, but have no usable arteries or veins for grafting. It is possible to grow human arteries from umbilical cord cells, but using a patient’s own cells…
