Critical issues in vascular tissue engineering

摘要

The development of a tissue-engineered small-diameter blood vessel substitute has been the "holy grail" for cardiovascular tissue engineering. Hence, there ate a number of critical issues. The chief among these is the issue of providing an "endothelial-like", non-thrombogenic inner lining. The second critical issue is to engineer in the appropriate mechanical properties, including visco-elastic properties that match those of native vessels. Thirdly, when a tissue-engineered blood vessel substitute is implanted into a host, a variety of biological responses will take place. Finally, although the long-term goal must be the engineering of blood vessel substitutes for clinical application, a more realistic short-term goal for tissue engineering is to develop more physiologic models for use in basic vascular biology in vitro studies.