cells

A new technique for creating artificial blood vessels outside the body using a patient's own stem cells has offered hope for people with heart disease.

One in four men and one in six women in the UK will die from heart disease and around 300,000 people a year suffer a heart attack. The disease is caused by a build-up of fatty deposits in blood vessels supplying the heart muscle with blood. If these are blocked completely the heart is starved of oxygen and stops.

Heart bypass surgery involves taking a length of artery from elsewhere in the body - usually the chest or leg - and using it to replace the furred-up heart artery.