A 62-year-old Virginia man with kidney failure received the first genetically engineered blood vessel in the United States, a vein that may improve his dialysis treatments and pave the way for future tissue transplants.

The operation at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, yesterday marked the first time doctors have implanted an “off-the-shelf” tissue graft. The vessel, grown with human cells on a mesh tube, has the potential to be widely used, since it was cleansed of cells that might trigger an adverse immune reaction, said the doctors who performed the surgery.

The vessel was implanted into the man’s arm.