Astute observations by the curiosity-driven Dr. Christian Kastrup led him and his colleagues to a discovery, based on the mussel’s ability to stick to rocks and the hulls of boats, that may endow diseased blood vessels with unique protective properties.

Christian Kastrup

As Dr. Kastrup and his colleagues from M.I.T. described in the journal PNAS (Early Edition, Dec 2012), marine mussels secrete substances underwater that are highly adhesive. By mimicking the properties of this adhesive material, they created a gel that can withstand the turbulent blood flow that takes place in arteries and veins.  They then devised approaches to apply the gel to the inside of blood vessels.

The potential impact of their remarkable finding was highlighted by experiments in mice by which they applied this bioadhesive gel to the surface of inflamed atherosclerotic plaques on the inside of blood vessels. The results were truly most exciting. The gel resulted in the development of protective fibrous caps over the plaques, with diminished ability of macrophages to infiltrate the atherosclerotic lesions, and a generalized reduction in circulating inflammatory cytokines.

Dr. Kastrup, a member of the CBR, the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Michael Smith Laboratories, said the gel might be used to shore up the walls of weakened blood vessels, or alternatively, prevent the inflammation that often occurs following insertion of a vascular stent. Most critically, the gel will hopefully be able to be applied to sites of atherosclerosis that are at greatest risk of promoting a heart attack or stroke, thereby reducing the incidence of these devastating and common events.

To learn more about this remarkable advance, read the article, view the FoM report and watch the video on GlobalTV!