{"id":69806,"date":"2025-07-03T09:26:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/?post_type=news&p=69806"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:27:18","slug":"leven-met-een-tikkende-tijdbom","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/news\/leven-met-een-tikkende-tijdbom\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with a ticking time bomb: how a human measurement model can help understand vascular diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By: Eline te Velde<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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How a human measurement model can help gain insight into vascular diseases<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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What determines whether a blood vessel remains elastic for decades or ruptures unexpectedly? It is a question that not only keeps doctors, but especially patients awake. Within the CELLSYSTEMICS project, Koen Reesink of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (Maastricht UMC) investigates how the human vascular wall works, reacts and sometimes fails, using a unique human measurement model.<\/strong><\/p>\n

CELLSYSTEMICS is a research platform that studies the behavior of human vascular cells under conditions that occur in the body. The focus is on the smooth muscle cells in the walls of large blood vessels. These cells do not contract spontaneously, like heart muscle cells, but are continuously stretched by blood pressure. \u201cWith every heartbeat, the artery expands slightly,\u201d explains project leader Koen Reesink. \u201cThat is necessary to relieve the heart. That stretching is not a side issue, it is an important signal for the cell: keep doing what you are doing.\u201d Yet, he says, that mechanical behavior is hardly tested in cell biology. \u201cWe mainly look at biochemical markers to determine whether a cell is behaving \u2018healthily\u2019. But we still know little about what that cell actually does when it is under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project not only looks at individual cells, but also at their behavior as a group. As part of living, deformable tissue. \u201cCells sense each other, communicate, respond to each other\u2019s behavior,\u201d says Reesink. \u201cIf one cell starts doing something different, the others notice that too.\u201d Yet this mutual interplay is hardly ever included in experiments. According to Reesink, this is a major shortcoming in much biomedical research. \u201cClassical experimental biology tries to work towards a homogeneous population of cells or people. While in reality, diversity is the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

CELLSYSTEMICS in three workflows<\/em><\/p>\n

Workflow 1 \u2013 Stem cell differentiation<\/em><\/strong>
\nStem cells, collected from patient blood, are converted into smooth muscle cells of the vascular wall using specific media and protocols.<\/em><\/p>\n

Workflow 2 \u2013 Cellular level measurements<\/em><\/strong>
\nMicro-indenting and fluorescence microscopy are used to measure how individual cells respond to mechanical loading: for example in calcium response and cytoskeletal dynamics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Workflow 3 \u2013 Functional tissue model<\/em><\/strong>
\nCells are brought together in a bioreactor that simulates real vessel wall loading. This allows us to look at force generation, response to drugs and the behaviour of cells as in a network.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ticking time bomb<\/h4>\n

Patients with an aneurysm \u2013 an enlargement of the artery \u2013 often feel like a ticking time bomb, says Reesink. \u201cThey know that things can go wrong, but no one knows when. That creates enormous uncertainty. They want to understand what is happening.\u201d CELLSYSTEMICS therefore not only investigates what goes wrong, but also what functions normally. \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t everyone get an aneurysm? That is the real question \u2013 and if we understand it, we can provide better answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the long term, the project can contribute to patient-specific predictions, although that remains a pipe dream for now. \u201cWe may one day be able to deduce from a blood sample what the course of the disease looks like,\u201d says Reesink. Testing treatments is also part of the project: in cultured vascular tissue, it is being examined whether medicines can influence the 'attitude' of cell groups. At the moment, growing patient-own cells still takes months, but that process must become faster. \u201cIf we move towards a month, clinical application will come closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beating heart muscle cells<\/h4>\n

Although CELLSYSTEMICS focuses on the vascular wall, its scope is broader. Functioning heart muscle cells have now also been grown in the lab \u2014 beating and all. But even there, the behavior of cells under load is still difficult to measure. \u201cThe mechanical environment determines how cells behave,\u201d says Reesink. \u201cStretch, pressure, adhesion \u2014 all those forces give signals, and they are often local.\u201d The platform is therefore relevant for any type of tissue that is subject to physical stress: from heart and lung tissue to muscles or even tumor cells.<\/p>\n

Mutual trust<\/h4>\n

Collaboration is essential for the success of CELLSYSTEMICS, Reesink emphasizes. \u201cYou have to learn to speak each other\u2019s language \u2014 and dare to say when you don\u2019t understand each other. Only then will you make progress.\u201d This applies to collaboration between disciplines, but also with companies. \u201cYou simply need their expertise, otherwise you won\u2019t get there.\u201d According to Reesink, it\u2019s all about mutual trust. \u201cI have given partners confidence that I would make a whole out of their knowledge. Without that synergy, I would never have been able to continue this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

CELLSYSTEMICS is an initiative of the departments of Biomedical Engineering, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Biochemistry of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, and is made possible by the Public-Private Partnership subsidy made available by Health-Holland \u2013 Top-Sector Life Sciences & Health, Samenwerkende GezondheidsFondsen (SGF) and ZonMW.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Want to know more? Koen Reesink is one of the speakers at the Life Science Live event on Tuesday, May 19, in the Plus Ultra Building on the Utrecht Science Park Campus. View the program and register at\u00a0the website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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About Koen Reesink<\/h2><\/div>\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Koen Reesink combines a background in electrical engineering and system dynamics with interdisciplinary research at the interfaces between physiology, surgery and cell biology. In CELLSYSTEMICS his love for systems, measurements and biomedical applications comes together. \u201cI believe that through collaboration \u2013 between disciplines, between people \u2013 you can (build) facilities and tools that would otherwise not be feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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