"We're kind of glad they didn't do the same thing with the reindeer, because the last thing we would want is reindeer on cocaine, pulling Santa around the sky, " said Cullen, a researcher who studies the human vascular system but was not involved in the Dutch study.

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Professor Ian Bond, head of the aerospace engineering department at the UK's University of Bristol, said his team had been developing a "bio-inspired" vascular system, based on the veins in the human body.

CNN: The emerging world of self-healing materials

The modest lobby opens up into a pristine production lab filled with skilled glassblowers, blue-flaming torches and dazzling glass models of the human heart, brain and vascular system.

CNN: Hearts of glass: Where medical science meets art

Farlow's glassblowing team would then create a heart connected to a vascular system connected to a custom opening in the femoral artery of the leg.

CNN: Hearts of glass: Where medical science meets art

To resolve this, researchers were focusing on developing a vascular system in which liquid could be circulated in a network of hollow fibers within the material, which would allow the healing agent to be restocked through an access point.

CNN: The emerging world of self-healing materials

Moreover, he says, the trial excluded patients at high risk for bleeding, such as those with central nervous system tumors or vascular problems.

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