Subcutaneous implantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells-polyglycolic acid scaffold complex to construct small diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Our former studies have shown that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) can be induced differentiation to vascular smooth muscle-like cells (VSMLCs) and vascular endothelium-like cells (VELCs), which are compatible with collagen-embedded polyglycolic acid scaffolds. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possibility of constructing small diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels via subcutaneous implantation. METHODS: The cells-scaffold complex was produced by separately seeding VSMLCs and VELCs derived from BMMSCs on polyglycolic acid collagen scaffolds. The two layers were separated by ECMgel. The cells-scaffold complex was subcutaneous implanted into small diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Histological analysis of the small diameter tissue-engineered blood vessel walls revealed a typical artery structure, which was similar to natural vessels. The tissue-engineered blood vessels were not broken down under a force of 26.6 kPa. Eight weeks after implantation, the Brdu-labeled seed cells were found in the three layers of the vessel walls. The results revealed that the subcutaneous tissue was a good bioreactor to construct small diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels.