Tissue engineering of recellularized small-diameter vascular grafts.

A tissue-engineered small-diameter arterial graft would be of benefit to patients requiring vascular reconstructive procedures. Our objective was to produce a tissue-engineered vascular graft with a high patency rate that could withstand arterial pressures. Rat arteries were acellularized with a series of detergent solutions, recellularized by incubation with a primary culture of endothelial cells, and implanted as interposition grafts in the common femoral artery. Acellular grafts that had not been recellularized were implanted in a separate group of control animals. No systemic anticoagulants were administered. Grafts were explanted at 4 weeks for definitive patency evaluation and histologic examination; 89% of the recellularized grafts and 29% of the control grafts remained patent. Elastin staining demonstrated the preservation of elastic fibers within the media of the acellular grafts before implantation. Immunohistochemical staining of explanted grafts demonstrated a complete layer of endothelial cells on the lumenal surface in grafts that remained patent. Smooth muscle cells were observed to have repopulated the vessel walls. The mechanical properties of the matrix were comparable to native vessels. Such a strategy may present an alternative to autologous harvest of small vessels for use in vascular bypass procedures.

[1]  A. Bishop,et al.  End‐to‐end versus end‐to‐side arterial anastomosis patency in microvascular surgery , 1998 .

[2]  D. W. Vinter,et al.  Fate of knitted dacron velour vascular grafts seeded with enzymatically derived autologous canine endothelium. , 1982, Transactions - American Society for Artificial Internal Organs.

[3]  Lucie Germain,et al.  In vitro reconstruction of a human capillary‐like network in a tissue‐engineered skin equivalent , 1998, FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

[4]  R. Langer,et al.  Advances in tissue engineering of blood vessels and other tissues. , 1997, Transplant immunology.

[5]  R Langer,et al.  Surface hydrolysis of poly(glycolic acid) meshes increases the seeding density of vascular smooth muscle cells. , 1998, Journal of biomedical materials research.

[6]  A. Menzel,et al.  A fibre reorientation model for orthotropic multiplicative growth , 2007, Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology.

[7]  R Langer,et al.  Morphologic and mechanical characteristics of engineered bovine arteries. , 2001, Journal of vascular surgery.

[8]  M. Czerny,et al.  Fluid Dynamics, Wall Mechanics, and Oxygen Transfer in Peripheral Bypass Anastomoses , 2002, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[9]  Robert T Tranquillo.  The Tissue‐Engineered Small‐Diameter Artery , 2002, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[10]  Athanassios Sambanis,et al.  A biological hybrid model for collagen-based tissue engineered vascular constructs. , 2003, Biomaterials.

[11]  L. Sauvage,et al.  Definitive proof of endothelialization of a Dacron arterial prosthesis in a human being. , 1995, Journal of vascular surgery.

[12]  P. Hagen,et al.  Remodeling of an acellular collagen graft into a physiologically responsive neovessel , 1999, Nature Biotechnology.

[13]  P. Schaaf,et al.  Re‐endothelialization of Human Umbilical Arteries Treated with Polyelectrolyte Multilayers: A Tool for Damaged Vessel Replacement , 2007 .

[14]  R. Anderson,et al.  Deaths: leading causes for 2001. , 2003, National vital statistics reports : from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System.

[15]  E R Edelman,et al.  Vascular tissue engineering : designer arteries. , 1999, Circulation research.

[16]  R M Nerem,et al.  Tissue engineering a blood vessel substitute: the role of biomechanics. , 2000, Yonsei medical journal.

[17]  R Langer,et al.  Functional arteries grown in vitro. , 1999, Science.

[18]  KAREN MENDELSON,et al.  Heart Valve Tissue Engineering: Concepts, Approaches, Progress, and Challenges , 2006, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[19]  Laura E Niklason,et al.  Requirements for growing tissue-engineered vascular grafts. , 2003, Cardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology.

[20]  P. Cederna,et al.  Recovery of muscle contractile function following nerve gap repair with chemically acellularized peripheral nerve grafts. , 2003, Journal of reconstructive microsurgery.

[21]  P. Zilla,et al.  Engineering of vascular ingrowth matrices: Are protein domains an alternative to peptides? , 2001, The Anatomical record.

[22]  L. Germain,et al.  A human tissue‐engineered vascular media: a new model for pharmacological studies of contractile responses , 2001, FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

[23]  M G Walker,et al.  Tissue engineering of blood vessels , 2006, The British journal of surgery.

[24]  H. Trivedi,et al.  Slowing the progression of chronic renal failure: economic benefits and patients' perspectives. , 2002, American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation.

[25]  D. W. Vinter,et al.  Cultured autogenous endothelial cell seeding of prosthetic vascular grafts. , 1979, Surgical forum.

[26]  R. Anderson,et al.  Deaths: leading causes for 2002. , 2005, National vital statistics reports : from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System.

[27]  L. Germain,et al.  A completely biological tissue‐engineered human blood vessel , 1998 .

[28]  Stuart K Williams,et al.  Accelerated endothelialization of interpositional 1-mm vascular grafts. , 2003, The Journal of surgical research.

[29]  Robert M Nerem,et al.  Role of mechanics in vascular tissue engineering. , 2003, Biorheology.

[30]  M. Flugelman,et al.  Engineering blood vessels by gene and cell therapy , 2007, Expert opinion on biological therapy.

[31]  M A Moses,et al.  Tissue engineering of autologous aorta using a new biodegradable polymer. , 1999, The Annals of thoracic surgery.

[32]  F A Auger,et al.  In vitro construction of a human blood vessel from cultured vascular cells: a morphologic study. , 1993, Journal of vascular surgery.

[33]  Elazer R Edelman,et al.  Tissue Engineering Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease , 2003, Circulation research.

[34]  F A Auger,et al.  A completely biological tissue‐engineered human blood vessel , 1998, FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

[35]  J. Stanley,et al.  Endothelial Linings in Prosthetic Vascular Grafts , 1987, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[36]  R M Nerem,et al.  Vascular tissue engineering. , 2001, Annual review of biomedical engineering.

[37]  R M Nerem,et al.  Hemodynamics and the vascular endothelium. , 1993, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[38]  Anthony Atala,et al.  Functional small-diameter neovessels created using endothelial progenitor cells expanded ex vivo , 2001, Nature Medicine.

[39]  Julie H. Campbell,et al.  Blood Vessels from Bone Marrow a , 2000, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[40]  Simon Stephan,et al.  Cell‐matrix biology in vascular tissue engineering , 2006, Journal of anatomy.

[41]  R. Nerem.  Atherogenesis: hemodynamics, vascular geometry, and the endothelium. , 1984, Biorheology.

[42]  J. Earnshaw,et al.  Mechanism of late prosthetic vascular graft infection. , 1997, Cardiovascular surgery.

[43]  J. Campbell,et al.  Novel vascular graft grown within recipient's own peritoneal cavity. , 1999, Circulation research.

[44]  R. Nerem,et al.  Tissue engineering a blood vessel: Regulation of vascular biology by mechanical stresses , 1994, Journal of cellular biochemistry.

[45]  P. Libby,et al.  Host bone-marrow cells are a source of donor intimal smooth- muscle–like cells in murine aortic transplant arteriopathy , 2001, Nature Medicine.

[46]  B. Lindblad,et al.  Endothelial cell seeding of synthetic vascular prostheses. , 1985, Acta chirurgica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[47]  T. Murohara,et al.  Evaluation of Compliance and Stiffness of Decellularized Tissues as Scaffolds for Tissue-Engineered Small Caliber Vascular Grafts Using Intravascular Ultrasound , 2006, ASAIO journal.

[48]  L. McIntire.  Vascular Assembly in Engineered and Natural Tissues , 2002, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[49]  D. W. Vinter,et al.  Platelet reactivity in vivo in dogs with arterial prostheses seeded with endothelial cells. , 1984, Circulation.