ABSTRACT
Tissue engineering has been widely used for its great variety of functions. It has been seen as a solution to satisfy the need for vascular substitutes like small diameter vessels, veins, and nerves. One of the most used methods is electrospinning, due to the fact that it allows the use of various polymers, sizes, mandrels and it can adjust the conditions to create personalized scaffolds. For the creation of scaffolds is fundamental to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each polymer, of this, will depend the biodegradability, biocompatibility, porosity, cellular adhesion, and cell proliferation as it is essential to mimic the extracellular matrix and provide structural support for the cells. The aim of this review was to investigate which materials are being used for the creation of tubular scaffolds by electrospinning. Here we selected only in vivo evaluation to demonstrate remodeling of the grafts into native-like tissues, in vitro evaluations had been excluded from this review. We analyze the conditions like speed, distance and voltage and the modifications like growth factors and combinations of natural and synthetic polymers that allow the authors to have a functional scaffold that will suit its purpose.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:Due to the much higher requirement of biocompatibility and anticoagulant of smal-diameter vascular grafts than those of large-diameter ones, in situ blood vessel regeneration occurs as a new research direction. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the recent research development of electrospun smal-diameter scaffolds and to explore the application of in situ blood vessel regeneration and the development tendency. METHODS:The first author retrieved China National Knowledge Infrastructure database, Wanfang data and ISI Web of Knowledge foreign database to retrieve literatures addressing the fabrication of electrospun smal-diameter nanofibrous vascular grafts, surface modification and mimicking extracel ular matrix, as wel as the evaluation of biocompatibility and security after grafting. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Electrospun smal-diameter nanofibrous vascular grafts have emerged as promising candidates in vascular tissue engineering. By using both natural and synthetic polymers, the scaffolds can achieve a good balance between mechanical property and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, the fabrication of multi-layered vascular scaffolds, functional surface modification and mimicking extracel ular matrix structural y and functional y are now becoming attractive research directions. However, at current stage, electrospun vascular scaffolds used clinical y are basical y formed by synthetic materials, which have limited biocompatibility and anticoagulant activity. In this case, more efforts should be paid to find an optimal ratio between natural and synthetic materials for the improvement of biocompatibility and anticoagulant ability of smal-diameter vascular grafts.