ESA is trying to develop blood vessels on the International Space Station

scientists are conducting an experiment on the International Space Station called the Spheroid, which aims to create artificial blood vessels for human surgery, according to the European Space Agency's website. The experiment will promote human organ transplantation and the production of new drugs, and new knowledge will benefit astronauts.
On Earth, most techniques for cultivating three-dimensional structures from human cells use biocompatural stents, which scientists use to shape tissues and help cells adhere to each other, while spheroid experiments have shown that cells cultured in microgravity do not require external support and can naturally form primitive blood vessels. Weight loss and insufficient reflow environment on orbit are ideal conditions for studying these three-dimensional complex structures.
"s "spheroid" experiment was conducted on the International Space Station in 2016. The experiment aims to study how the cells that form the inner layers of blood vessels, endothelectrines, react in the microgravity environment on the International Space Station. Endoblasts control the contraction and dilation of blood vessels and regulate blood flow and blood pressure.
human cells grown in space are polymerized into tubular structures, similar to the inner layers of blood vessels in the human body. In the Spheroid experiment, cells grew in the European Space Agency's Kubik culture box for 12 days.
these tulle aggregates are like primitive blood vessels that scientists who culture cells on Earth have never done before," said Daniela Gehm of Otto von Gurik University in Magdeburg, Germany. Marcus
, of the same university, said: "We have learned new knowledge about the mechanism of tube formation, and the results confirm that gravity has an effect on the way key proteins and genes interact. "
are cultureing different cells to improve the tissue engineering of artificial blood vessels, " says Marcus. The
in space can help transform human tissue for transplantation or new drug production, and ultimately help patients in need of transplants replace damaged blood vessels.