Development of vascular substitutes

摘要

A long-term objective of many involved in blood vessel research is the development of a small diameter vascular substitute which can be used in coronary bypass graft surgery. If these efforts are to be successful, there are critical functional characteristics which must be achieved. In recent years many of those interested have turned their attention to tissue engineering, and over the past decade some progress has been reported. The results of some of these efforts are briefly reviewed here. Included is the strategy of the Georgia Tech team and recent results which demonstrate that in vitro mechanical stimulation of smooth muscle cell-seeded tubular collagen constructs induces a remodeling with the result that the associated material properties are considerably enhanced.