Endothelial Tissue Engineering

Nonwoven fibre-based matrices of poly[(ethyl phenylalanate)o,g(ethyl alanate)o.g(ethyl glycinate)o.4 phosphazene] (PPAGP) and poly[ is(ethyl alanate) phosphazene] (PAlaP) were, together with poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) evaluated in terms of their applicability for TE with rat neuromicrovascular EC. It was found that all three polymers allowed the EC to adhere to the scaffolds 

Boscolo, M. Eolin, R. Scienza, P. Rebuffat, P.P. Parnigotto and G.G. Nussdorfer, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 2004, 71, 669. 2004, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [15] 

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McHugh, K.J., Tao, S.L., Saint-Geniez, M. A novel porous scaffold fabrication technique for epithelial and endothelial tissue engineering. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 24, 1659-1670 (2013). doi 10.1007/sl0856-013-4934-l... 

Stock et al. used P4HB scaffolds and tissue engineered the patch with a porosity of 95% and pore sizes in the range of 180-240 p,m by salt-leaching and solvent evaporation. The sheep autologous cells (endothelial, smooth muscle, and fibroblast cells) were seeded on the scaffold before implantation. Results confirmed that the cell-seeded implants induced progressive tissue regeneration with no thrombus formation, stenosis, or dilatation. 

Hubbell JA, Massia SP, Desai NP et al (1991) Endothelial cell-selective materials for tissue engineering in the vascular graft via a new receptor. Biotechnology 9(6) 568-572... 

Unger, R.E., Peters, K., Wolf, M., Motta, A., Migliaresi, C., and Kirkpatrick, C.J. "Endothelializa-tion of a non-woven silk fibroin net for use in tissue engineering Growth and gene regulation of hunian endothelial cells". Biomaterials 25(21), 5137-5146 (2004). 

King, K.R. Terai, H. Wang, C.C. Vacanti, J.P. Borenstein, J.T. Microfluidics for tissue engineering microvasculatuer endothelial cell culture. In Micrototal Analysis Systems 2001 Proceedings of the 5th Ptas 2001 Symposium, Monterey, CA, USA, October 21-25, 2001 247-249. 

For example, the suitability of the gels to support the growth of endothelial cells was evaluated since endothelial cells play a crucial role in the sprouting of capillary blood microvascular vessels. A lack of vascularisation is a major obstacle for successful tissue engineering therapies, as it results in insufficient nutrient supply... 

These results clearly demonstrate how cell adhesion onto the developed set of biohybrid materials can be easily timed through the choice of PEG-content and biomolecular functionalisation. More advanced functionalisation schemes additionally utilize non-covalent loading of growth and differentiation factors to locally induce the formation of capillary endothelial cell networks. Based on that, the novel biohybrid hydrogel can be expected to offer valuable extensions of various tissue engineering strategies. 

Schmidt D, Breymann C, Weber A, et al. (2004). Umbilical cord blood derived endothelial progenitor cells for tissue engineering of vascular grafts. Ann. Thorac. Surg. 78 2094-2098. 

Chitosan-collagen composite Isolated aortic valve endothelial cell (VEC) cultures and preferential adhesion to fibronectin, collagen types IV and I over laminin and osteo-pontin. Chitosan-collagen type IV films act as protein precoatings The composite showed improved VEC growth and morphology in comparison to chitosan alone Certain alteration in the properties of chitosan can improve amenability to valve tissue engineering applications Cuy et al. [126]... 

Niklason and Langer studied the feasibility of using PLGA and PGA for tissue-engineered, small diameter blood vessels. They reported that PLGA films supported confluent monolayers of aortic smooth muscle and endothelial cells, and PGA mesh scaffolds developed a tissue-like appearance when seeded with aortic smooth muscle cells. They also claimed that PGA scaffolds formed into a tube did not maintain sufficient strength required for blood vessels, even with smooth muscle tissue formed on the polymer. In an effort to improve the results, they applied pulsatile stretch forces to the cell-polymer... 

Other attempts at tissue engineering blood vessels have been made by constructing the vessels ex vivo directly from the cellular components. This may be accomplished by culturing a sheet of human vascular smooth muscle cells in collagen and placing it within a lumenal support to produce tire media. A fibroblast sheet is then similarly cultured and placed about tire media to form the adventitia. Endothelial cells are later seeded into the lumen of the vessel, thus forming a mechanically soimd, three-dimensional vessel. 

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