A University of British Columbia researcher has helped create a gel -- based on the mussel's knack¹（诀窍，本领） for clinging to rocks, piers²（支墩） and boat hulls³ -- that can be painted onto the walls of blood vessels⁵ and stay put, forming a protective barrier with potentially life-saving implications. Co-invented by Assistant Professor Christian⁶ Kastrup while a postdoctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the gel is similar to the amino acid that enables mussels to resist the power of churning（搅拌） water. The variant⁷ that Kastrup and his collaborators created, described in the current issue of the online journal PNAS Early Edition, can withstand the flow of blood through arteries⁸ and veins¹⁰.

 

The gel's "sheer strength" could shore up weakened vessel⁴ walls at risk of rupturing¹¹ -- much like the way putty can fill in dents¹² in a wall, says Kastrup, a member of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular¹³ Biology and the Michael Smith Laboratories.

 

By forming a stable barrier between blood and the vessel walls, the gel could also prevent the inflammation that typically occurs when a stent is inserted to widen a narrowed artery¹⁴ or vein⁹; that inflammation often counteracts¹⁵ the opening of the vessel that the stent was intended to achieve.

 

The widest potential application would be preventing the rupture¹⁶（破裂） of blood vessel plaque¹⁷. When a plaque ruptures¹⁸, the resulting clot¹⁹ can block blood flow to the heart (triggering a heart attack) or the brain (triggering a stroke). Mice treated with a combination of the gel and an anti-inflammatory steroid had more stable plaque than a control group of untreated mice.

 

"By mimicking²⁰ the mussel's ability to cling to objects, we created a substance that stays in place in a very dynamic environment with high flow velocities," says Kastrup, a member of UBC's Centre for Blood Research.

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