Abstract
One of the main challenges of tissue-engineered vascular prostheses is restenosis due to intimal hyperplasia. The aim of this study is to develop a material for scaffolds able to support cell growth while tolerating physiological conditions and maintaining the patency of carotid artery model. Tubular hyaluronic acid (HA)-functionalized collagen nanofibrous composite scaffolds were prepared by sequential electrospinning method. The tubular composite scaffold has well-controlled biophysical and biochemical signals, providing a good matrix for the adhesion and proliferation of vascular endothelial cells (ECs), but resisting to platelets adhesion when exposed to blood. Carotid artery replacement experiment from 6-week rabbits showed that the HA/collagen nanofibrous composite scaffold grafts with endothelialization on the luminal surface could maintain vascular patency. At retrieval, the composite scaffold maintained good structural integrity and had comparable mechanical strength as the native artery. This study indicating that electrospun scaffolds combined with cells may become an alternative to prosthetic grafts for vascular reconstruction.Graphical
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide [1, 2]
The average diameters measured for the hyaluronic acid (HA)/collagen fibers are in the range of (905 ± 113) nm (Additional file 1: Table S1)
SEM evidenced a fusion layer of endothelial cells (ECs) on scaffolds able to resist adhesion of platelets (Fig. 2e). This observation was further confirmed by quantification of platelet activation assay (Fig. 2f ). These findings indicate that tubular HA/collagen electrospun scaffolds can support the growth of cell types from native blood vessels and vascular ECs that show proper function in resisting platelet adhesion
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death worldwide [1, 2]. Autogenous vein is still the gold standard of vascular bypass. Tissueengineered blood vessels, constructed by cells and biomaterial scaffolds, are promising substitutes for native blood vessels [4, 5]. In this method, autologous vascular endothelial cells (ECs) are implanted on the luminal surface of biomaterial scaffolds, and a monolayer of ECs is formed before implantation [6]. In smalldiameter vascular graft applications, the proliferation of vascular ECs along the biomaterial scaffolds luminal surface is impaired, which leads to the failure of vascular graft patency in the early stage of implantation [7]. To promote the efficiency of endothelialization, a variety of biomaterials, such as extracellular matrix (ECM)—based proteins [8,9,10] and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) [11], are widely used to prepare vascular scaffolds promoting the proliferation of vascular ECs [10, 12]
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