Electrochemically Aligned Collagen-Elastin Fibers for Vascular Tissue Engineering

摘要

In summary, we have demonstrated that elastin can be incorporated uniformly within electrochemically aligned collagen fibers. Further, incorporation of elastin induces morphological changes in rSMCs. Future studies will focus on mechanical characterization of these collagen-elastin fibers as we believe that mimicking the native composition of elastin will impart mechanical properties comparable to those of the small diameter blood vessels. Further, long term cultures will be performed to assess the effect of elastin incorporation on cell phenotype and gene expression. Overall, results from this preliminary study demonstrate that elastin incorporated electrochemically aligned collagen fibers have the potential to be developed for vascular tissue engineering applications.