Influence of blood vessels on the formation of the area

2001/10/01 Agirre Ruiz de Arkaute, Aitziber - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Biologia

The goal of many scientists is to get whole organs from embryonic cells. This would allow the replacement of the affected organs, but with organs obtained from their own cells. However, it is necessary to know how cells are defined in the embryo, and experts have seen that blood vessels can have a lot to say.

It is well known that blood vessels, with metabolic support, nutrient supply, oxygen and waste disposal, intervene mainly in the maintenance of organs. But according to this last study, blood also helps. In the pancreas or organogenesis of the area, for example, it provides the necessary compounds for development. If so, in addition to the precise genetic information that the cells that will form the organ contain, they need certain substances that come from the blood. In fact, they have a continuous relationship with blood vessels from the beginning.

According to researcher Douglas Melton, when the cells that will produce the area are isolated, after several days of growth, a structure like a tube begins to form, but in no case does pancreatic differentiation appear –it does not generate insulin–. But when they put the culture together with the endothelial cells of the aorta, an insulin synthesis occurs. This is a sign that organogenesis has occurred, as only mature areas can produce insulin.

Scientists have studied how contact between organs and blood vessels is maintained and have found that the very development of blood vessels depends on the growth factors that are generated in the developing tissues of the area. That is, they exchange chemical information that allows the development of both. This may be the route used by the developing area to attract the blood vessel.

As Melton has pointed out, the exchange of chemical compounds between tissues and blood vessels may be the general mechanism used in vertebrate organogenesis. Their knowledge can contribute to the development of new organ formation techniques from embryonic cells.