Application of optical coherence tomography in tissue engineered blood vessel culture based on Luo-Ye pump / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the application of optical coherence tomography in vascular tissue engineering culture by dynamic monitoring its changes.Methods Human umbilical artery smooth muscle cells were isolated and culture by tissue block method.After passage culture and cell surface markers evaluation, smooth muscle cells were seeded onto polyglycolic acid scaffold and placed into the bioreactor based on Luo-Ye pump with pulsatile stress for three-dimensional culture.At 1、4、 7 、10、14、17、21 days in culture, the image data was obtained by optical coherence tomography technology.The ability of imaging TEBV via OCT was analyzed combined with histopathological observation.Results As the incubation time extended,OCT clearly showed PGA gradual degradation, decreased composite scaffold thickness and the wall structure from loose to tight.At 21 days in culture, the vessel mimics had smooth surface with extracellular matrix evenly distributed and achieved complete reconstruction in the PGA scaffold.Combining with histopathological staining, the blood vessel mimics were similar to natural blood vessels.OCT measured TEBV thickness compared with histopathological measurement had good correlation (r =0.922,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Optical coherence tomography could clearly image microstructures of tissue engineered blood vessels cultured in three-dimensional culture system based on Luo-Ye pump, delineate the reconstruction of TEBV-like tissue in the bioreactor and provide as a dynamic and convenient monitoring tool in vascular tissue engineering.