Development of a Small Caliber Vascular Graft Using a Tissue Engineering Strategy

Small caliber vascular grafts (inner diameter less than 5mm) for the replacement of blocked vessels due to atherosclerosis are of great research and clinical interests. Current small diameter prosthetic vascular grafts suffer from low patency rates, due to thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia. We will develop biologically functional blood vessels that overcome these problems with a novel tissue engineering strategy. In particular, we will first coat rat aortas with a synthetic compound that will minimize clotting. Then, we will seed endothelial cells (ECs) onto the graft. The innovation contained in this report is that ECs will be developed using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technology and will be implanted upon the chemically modified grafts to inhibit smooth muscle cell (SMC) ingrowth.