Study on vascular transplantation with small-caliber decellularized matrix vascular grafts

Abstract

Objective To explore the feasibility of smal-caliber decellularized matrix (DCM) vascular grafts in vascular transplantation.Methods 40 male dogs were randomly divided into three groups,and underwent right common carotid artery interposition with DCM (group Ⅰ,n =16),expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) (group Ⅱ,n =14 ) vascular grafts or autologous external jugular vein (group Ⅲ,n =10).Postoperative Doppler Ultrasound were done to detect the patency.Grafts were explanted at 4 and 8 weeks after implantation.The retrieved specimens were evaluated by morphology,hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stain,immunohistochemistry stain,and scanning electron microscopy.Results The patency rates at 1 week among the three groups (75.0％,64.3％,100.0％ respectively) were of no difference of significance (P ＞0.05).4 and 8 week patency rates of group Ⅲ ( 100.0％,88.9％ )are both higher than group Ⅰ (56.3％,26.7％ ) and group Ⅱ (57.1％,23.1％,P ＜0.05 ),however,no differences of significance were gained between the latter two (P ＞ 0.05).The thrombus formation area of DCM grafts was smaller than that of ePTFE grafts.DCM grafts achieved better endothelialization in the stomas neointima than ePTFE grafts within 8 weeks.Conclusion Compared with ePTFE grafts,DCM grafts show superiority in reducing thrombogeneity,and improving endothelialization. Key words: Small-caliber; Vascular grafts; Decellularized matrix; Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene; External jugular vein