Abstract
Small-diameter vascular grafts fabricated from synthetic polymers have found limited applications so far in vascular surgeries, owing to their poor mechanical properties. In this study, cylindrical nanofibrous structures of highly oriented nanofibers made from polyacrylonitrile, poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) were investigated. Cylindrical collectors with alternate conductive and non-conductive segments were used to obtain highly oriented nanofibrous structures at the same time with better mechanical properties. The surface morphology (orientation), mechanical properties and suture retention of the nanofibrous structures were characterized using SEM, mechanical tester and universal testing machine, respectively. The PLGA nanofibrous cylindrical structure exhibited excellent properties (tensile strength of 9.1 ± 0.6 MPa, suture retention strength of 27N and burst pressure of 350 ± 50 mmHg) when compared to other polymers. Moreover, the PLGA grafts showed good porosity and elongation values, that could be potentially used for vascular graft applications. The combination of PLGA nanofibers with extracellular vesicles (EVs) will be explored as a potential vascular graft in future.
Highlights
Cardio vascular diseases (CVD) are increasing day by day and becoming one of the primary causes of annual deaths around the world [1]
Various materials have been explored to design the nanoscale features of scaffolds, but polymeric nanofibers have been reported as one of the best options to mimic the native structure of extracellular matrix (ECM) [10,11]
The overall aim of the study was to find the polymer with best properties of mechanical strength, burst pressure and suture retention strength, that could be used in future for vascular grafts applications
Summary
Cardio vascular diseases (CVD) are increasing day by day and becoming one of the primary causes of annual deaths around the world [1]. Coronary artery (CA) disease is one of the most noticeable forms of cardiovascular diseases [2], whereas the main cause of CVD is the blocking of blood vessels, limiting blood supply to vital organs [3]. Tissue engineered vascular grafts have made outstanding progress [6,7]. In TE, a three dimensional (3D) scaffold has been used for repairing the defected/damaged blood vessels, which mimic the structure of extracellular matrix (ECM) of blood vessels [9]. Various materials have been explored to design the nanoscale features of scaffolds, but polymeric nanofibers have been reported as one of the best options to mimic the native structure of ECM [10,11]. Even though different techniques can be used to fabricate nanofibers, viz phase separation [12,13], drawing [14], template synthesis [15,16,17], self-assembly [18,19]
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