Technology offers hope for dialysis patients

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- William Alexander has suffered with kidney failure for 15 years. Dialysis keeps him alive.

"Ain't like you can't do it. You've got to have dialysis to live. See this is the one they had," said William.

His arm tells the story of failed blood vessel grafts used to help clean his blood.

"It's disfiguring," said Dr. Jeffrey Lawson, MD, PhD, Professor of Vascular Surgery and Pathology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

It's a reality Lawson says most patients face.

"I tell many of my patients they can expect to have a procedure related to dialysis at least once a year," Lawson said.

Now, a new bio-engineered blood vessel using donated human cells could change that.

"We'll be able to reduce the number of interventions they have to have," said Lawson.

At the lab, Dr. Shannon L.M. Dahl, says donated cells are placed in a bio-reactor and cultured for two months.

"So we're growing the cells and we're putting the bio-reactor parts together," said Dahl, Vice President, Scientific Operations, co-founder, Humacyte, Inc., in Durham.

Once the vessel is formed, it's cleansed of the donor cells, leaving a collagen structure that the body readily accepts as its own.

"It then becomes your blood vessel as your body grows into it, which is very, very exciting," said Lawson.

William had the bio-engineered vessel placed in his right arm eight months ago.