Advances in vascular tissue engineering / 医用生物力学

ABSTRACT

Cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. The replacement of large diameter vessels (≥6 mm), such as the aorta, has been performed successfully with synthetic non-degradable vascular grafts, while it is still a challenge to engineer small diameter vessels with long-term patency. Over the past three decades, the rapid progress in the field of vascular tissue engineering has provided some promising approaches, including in vitro, in vivo, and in situ tissue engineering of vascular grafts. This review is focused on the most recent progress and trends in vascular tissue engineering.