By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they have grown in mice the kind of functioning heart blood vessels that cardiac surgeons create with bypass operations.

One ultimate goal is to replace some heart surgery with injections of laboratory-grown cells that would establish themselves in the body, providing a system of blood vessels for damaged hearts that need more oxygen, said Juan M. Melero-Martin, a co-author of a paper in the July 18 issue of the journal Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The next time you're offered a choice between Earl Grey and green tea, you might want to go green.

A new study shows that the beverage, which is more popular in Eastern cultures, can protect heart arteries by keeping them flexible and relaxed, and therefore better able to withstand the ups and downs of constant changes in blood pressure.

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MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- A newly discovered molecular malfunction may explain the development of high blood pressure, diabetes and immune problems, researchers report.

Rogue versions of enzymes known as proteases roam the body, clipping off working segments of the receptors that allow insulin to enter cells and do its job, according to a report in the June 30 online issue of Hypertension.

That uncontrolled enzymatic activity also reduces the immune system's response to infection and raises blood pressure, the report noted.