Small-caliber tissue-engineered vascular stent: How to produce a material with physiological remodeling activity / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The common clinical treatment methods of cardiovascular disease are vascular reconstruction, including stent interventional therapy, coronary artery bypass grafting and angioplasty. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the latest research progress of tissue-engineered vascular stent materials, such as natural derivative stent materials, synthetic macromolecule materials and composite materials, so as to lay a theoretical foundation for small-caliber vascular transplantation. METHODS: PubMed, WanFang, and CNI databases were retrieved for the articles published from January 2008 to July 2019. The key words were “tissue engineering, biological material, scaffold material, blood vessel” in Chinese and English, respectively. The documents with old content and repeated conclusions were excluded, and 52 eligible articles were enrolled. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Autologous vascular grafts, such as saphenous vein and internal thoracic artery, are the best alternatives to small-caliber vessels. However, restenosis of vascular lumen may be induced after transplantation, and the incidence of thrombosis, infection and transplantation failure increases, which seriously hinders the clinical application. Considering these limitations, researchers have embedded tissue-engineered vascular grafts into cells to produce a living material with physiological remodeling activity. This potential solution may bring hope for the future of vascular grafts.