Long-term results of autologous scaffold-free tissue-engineered vascular graft for hemodialysis access.

BACKGROUND: The growing size of the end stage renal disease (ESRD) population highlights the need for effective dialysis access. Exhausted native vascular access options have led to increased use of catheters and prosthetic shunts, which are both associated with high risks of access failure and infection. Emerging alternatives include tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVG). Here we present the endpoint results for 10 ESRD patients with the scaffold-free tissue-engineered vascular access produced from sheets of extracellular matrix produced in vitro by human cells in culture. METHODS: Grafts were implanted as arteriovenous shunts in 10 ESRD patients with a complex history of access failure. Follow-up included ultrasound control of graft morphology and function, dialysis efficiency, access failure, intervention rate, as well as immunohistochemical analysis of graft structure. RESULTS: One patient died of unrelated causes and three shunts failed to become useable access grafts during the 3-month maturation phase. The 12-month primary and secondary patency for the other six shunts was 86%. Survival of six shunts functioning as the vascular access was 22 ± 12 months with longest primary patency of 38.6 months. The dialysis event rate of 3.34 per patient-year decreased significantly with the use of this TEVG to 0.67. CONCLUSIONS: This living autologous tissue-engineered vascular graft seems to be an alternative to synthetic vascular access options, exhibiting advantages of native arteriovenous fistula.

Human textiles: A cell-synthesized yarn as a truly "bio" material for tissue engineering applications.

In the field of tissue engineering, many groups have come to rely on the extracellular matrix produced by cells as the scaffold that provides structure and strength to the engineered tissue. We have previously shown that sheets of Cell-Assembled extracellular Matrix (CAM), which are entirely biological yet robust, can be mass-produced for clinical applications using normal, adult, human fibroblasts. In this article, we demonstrate that CAM yarns can be generated with a range of physical and mechanical properties. We show that this material can be used as a simple suture to close a wound or can be assembled into fully biological, human, tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) that have high mechanical strength and are implantable. By combining this truly "bio" material with a textile-based assembly, this original tissue engineering approach is highly versatile and can produce a variety of strong human textiles that can be readily integrated in the body. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Yarn of synthetic biomaterials have been turned into textiles for decades because braiding, knitting and weaving machines can mass-produce medical devices with a wide range of shapes and mechanical properties. Here, we show that robust, completely biological, and human yarn can be produced by normal cells in vitro. This yarn can be used as a simple suture material or to produce the first human textiles. For example, we produced a woven tissue-engineered vascular grafts with burst pressure, suture retention strength and transmural permeability that surpassed clinical requirements. This novel strategy holds the promise of a next generation of medical textiles that will be mechanically strong without any foreign scaffolding, and will have the ability to truly integrate into the host's body.

First human use of an allogeneic tissue-engineered vascular graft for hemodialysis access.

An arteriovenous fistula is the current gold standard for chronic hemodialysis access. Tunneled catheters or synthetic grafts have poorer outcomes and much higher risks of infection. This report presents the first clinical use of a completely biological, allogeneic, nonliving, and human tissue-engineered vascular graft. Tissue-engineered vascular grafts built from allogeneic fibroblasts were implanted as shunts in three hemodialysis patients. The tissue-engineered vascular graft was stored for 9 months, without loss of mechanical strength. Implanted grafts showed no signs of degradation or dilation, with time points up to 11 months. Results of panel-reactive antibody and cross-reactivity tests showed no evidence of immune responses.

Autologous cell therapies: challenges in US FDA regulation.

Cell-based therapies (CBTs) have been hailed for the last two decades as the next pillar of healthcare, yet the clinical and commercial potential of regenerative medicine has yet to live up to the hype. While recent analysis has suggested that regenerative medicine is maturing into a multibillion dollar industry, examples of clinical and commercial success are still relatively rare. With 30 years of laboratory and clinical efforts fueled by countless billions in public and private funding, one must contemplate why CBTs have not made a greater impact. The current regulatory environment, with its zero-risk stance, stymies clinical innovation while fueling a potentially risky medical tourism industry. Here, we highlight the challenges the US FDA faces and present talking points for an improved regulatory framework for autologous CBTs.

The evolution of vascular tissue engineering and current state of the art.

Dacron® (polyethylene terephthalate) and Goretex® (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) vascular grafts have been very successful in replacing obstructed blood vessels of large and medium diameters. However, as diameters decrease below 6 mm, these grafts are clearly outperformed by transposed autologous veins and, particularly, arteries. With approximately 8 million individuals with peripheral arterial disease, over 500,000 patients diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, and over 250,000 patients per year undergoing coronary bypass in the USA alone, there is a critical clinical need for a functional small-diameter conduit [Lloyd-Jones et al., Circulation 2010;121:e46-e215]. Over the last decade, we have witnessed a dramatic paradigm shift in cardiovascular tissue engineering that has driven the field away from biomaterial-focused approaches and towards more biology-driven strategies. In this article, we review the preclinical and clinical efforts in the quest for a tissue-engineered blood vessel that is free of permanent synthetic scaffolds but has the mechanical strength to become a successful arterial graft. Special emphasis is given to the tissue engineering by self-assembly (TESA) approach, which has been the only one to reach clinical trials for applications under arterial pressure.

New biological solutions for hemodialysis access.

Since Scribner described the first prosthetic chronic dialysis shunt in 1961, the surgical techniques and strategies to maintain vascular access have improved dramatically. Today, hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide are treated with some combination of native vein fistula, synthetic vascular graft, or synthetic semipermanent catheter. Despite significantly lower efficacy compared with autologous fistulae, the basic materials used for synthetic shunts and catheters have evolved surprisingly slowly. The disparity between efficacy rates and concomitant maintenance costs has driven a strong campaign to decrease the use of synthetic grafts and catheters in favor of native fistulae. Whether arguing the benefits of Fistula First or "Catheter Last," the fact that clinicians are in need of an alternative to expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) is irrefutable. The poor performance of synthetic materials has a significant economic impact as well. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) accounts for approximately 6% of Medicare's overall budget, despite a prevalence of about 0.17%. Of that, 15%-25% is spent on access maintenance, making hemodialysis access a critical priority for Medicare. This clinical and economic situation has spawned an aggressive effort to improve clinical care strategies to reduce overall cost and complications. While the bulk of this effort has historically focused on developing new synthetic biomaterials, more recently, investigators have developed a variety of cell-based strategies to create tissue-engineered vascular grafts. In this article, we review the evolution of the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering. We also present an update on the Lifeline™ vascular graft, an autologous, biological, and tissue-engineered vascular graft, which was the first tissue-engineered graft to be used clinically in dialysis patients.

Case study: first implantation of a frozen, devitalized tissue-engineered vascular graft for urgent hemodialysis access.

Previously we reported on the mid- to long-term follow-up in the first clinical trial to use a completely autologous tissue-engineered graft in the high pressure circulation. In these early studies, living grafts were built from autologous fibroblasts and endothelial cells obtained from small skin and vein biopsies. The graft was assembled using a technique called tissue-engineering by self-assembly (TESA), where robust conduits were grown without support from exogenous biomaterials or synthetic scaffolding. One limitation with this earlier work was the long lead times required to build the completely autologous vascular graft. Here we report the first implant of a frozen, devitalized, completely autologous Lifeline™ vascular graft. In a departure from previous studies, the entire fibroblast layer, which provides the mechanical backbone of the graft, was air-dried then stored at -80°C until shortly before implant. Five days prior to implant, the devitalized conduit was rehydrated, and its lumen was seeded with living autologous endothelial cells to provide an antithrombogenic lining. The graft was implanted as an arteriovenous shunt between the brachial artery and the axillary vein in a patient who was dependent upon a semipermanent dialysis catheter placed in the femoral vein. Eight weeks postoperatively, the graft functions without complication. This strategy of preemptive skin and vein biopsy and cold-preserving autologous tissue allows the immediate availability of an autologous arteriovenous fistula, and is an important step forward in our strategy to provide allogeneic tissue-engineered grafts available "off-the-shelf".

Expression of versican isoform V3 in the absence of ascorbate improves elastogenesis in engineered vascular constructs.

A promising method to fabricate tissue-engineered blood vessels is to have cells synthesize the supportive extracellular matrix scaffold of the tissue-engineered blood vessel; however, a shortcoming of this method has been limited elastogenesis. Previously, we found that arterial smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) produced significant quantities of elastin when transduced with splice variant 3 of the proteoglycan versican (V3). In this study, we assessed whether elastogenesis and the structural properties of entirely cell-derived engineered vascular constructs could be improved by the incorporation of V3-transduced rat ASMCs. After 18 weeks of culture, V3 constructs had more tropoelastin, more elastin crosslinks, higher burst strengths, greater elasticity, and thicker collagen fiber bundles compared with empty-vector controls. The expression of elastin and elastin-associated proteins was increased in V3 and control ASMC monolayer cultures when ascorbic acid, which promotes collagen synthesis and inhibits elastogenesis, was removed from the medium. Engineered vascular constructs with ascorbate withdrawn for 14 weeks, after an initial 4-week exposure to ascorbate, exhibited increased elastin, desmosine content, elasticity, and burst strength compared with constructs exposed continuously to ascorbate. Our results show that V3 coupled with limited exposure to ascorbate promotes elastogenesis and improves the structural and functional properties of engineered vascular constructs.

Effectiveness of haemodialysis access with an autologous tissue-engineered vascular graft: a multicentre cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Application of a tissue-engineered vascular graft for small-diameter vascular reconstruction has been a long awaited and much anticipated advance for vascular surgery. We report results after a minimum of 6 months of follow-up for the first ten patients implanted with a completely biological and autologous tissue-engineered vascular graft. METHODS: Ten patients with end-stage renal disease who had been receiving haemodialysis through an access graft that had a high probability of failure, and had had at least one previous access failure, were enrolled from centres in Argentina and Poland between September, 2004, and April, 2007. Completely autologous tissue-engineered vascular grafts were grown in culture supplemented with bovine serum, implanted as arteriovenous shunts, and assessed for both mechanical stability during the safety phase (0-3 months) and effectiveness after haemodialysis was started. FINDINGS: Three grafts failed within the safety phase, which is consistent with failure rates expected for this high-risk patient population. One patient was withdrawn from the study because of severe gastrointestinal bleeding shortly before implantation, and another died of unrelated causes during the safety period with a patent graft. The remaining five patients had grafts functioning for haemodialysis 6-20 months after implantation, and a total of 68 patient-months of patency. In these five patients, only one intervention (surgical correction) was needed to maintain secondary patency. Overall, primary patency was maintained in seven (78%) of the remaining nine patients 1 month after implantation and five (60%) of the remaining eight patients 6 months after implantation. INTERPRETATION: Our proportion of primary patency in this high-risk cohort approaches Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative objectives (76% of patients 3 months after implantation) for arteriovenous fistulas, averaged across all patient populations.

Mechanical properties of completely autologous human tissue engineered blood vessels compared to human saphenous vein and mammary artery.

We have previously reported the initial clinical feasibility with our small diameter tissue engineered blood vessel (TEBV). Here we present in vitro results of the mechanical properties of the TEBVs of the first 25 patients enrolled in an arterio-venous (A-V) shunt safety trial, and compare these properties with those of risk-matched human vein and artery. TEBV average burst pressures (3490+/-892 mmHg, n=230) were higher than native saphenous vein (SV) (1599+/-877 mmHg, n=7), and not significantly different from native internal mammary artery (IMA) (3196+/-1264 mmHg, n=16). Suture retention strength for the TEBVs (152+/-50 gmf) was also not significantly different than IMA (138+/-50 gmf). Compliance for the TEBVs prior to implantation (3.4+/-1.6%/100 mmHg) was lower than IMA (11.5+/-3.9%/100 mmHg). By 6 months post-implant, the TEBV compliance (8.8+/-4.2%/100 mmHg, n=5) had increased to values comparable to IMA, and showed no evidence of dilation or aneurysm formation. With clinical time points beyond 21 months as an A-V shunt without intervention, the mechanical tests and subsequent lot release criteria reported here would seem appropriate minimum standards for clinical use of tissue engineered vessels.

Cell-based therapeutics from an economic perspective: primed for a commercial success or a research sinkhole?

Despite widespread hype and significant investment through the late 1980s and 1990s, cell-based therapeutics have largely failed from both a clinical and financial perspective. While the early pioneers were able to create clinically efficacious products, small margins coupled with small initial indications made it impossible to produce a reasonable return on the huge initial investments that had been made to support widespread research activities. Even as US FDA clearance opened up larger markets, investor interest waned, and the crown jewels of cell-based therapeutics went bankrupt or were rescued by corporate bailout. Despite the hard lessons learned from these pioneering companies, many of today's regenerative medicine companies are supporting nearly identical strategies. It remains to be seen whether or not our proposed tenets for investment and commercialization strategy yield an economic success or whether the original model can produce a return on investment sufficient to justify the large up-front investments. Irrespective of which approach yields a success, it is critically important that more of the second-generation products establish profitability if the field is to enjoy continued investment from both public and private sectors.

Human tissue-engineered blood vessels for adult arterial revascularization.

There is a crucial need for alternatives to native vein or artery for vascular surgery. The clinical efficacy of synthetic, allogeneic or xenogeneic vessels has been limited by thrombosis, rejection, chronic inflammation and poor mechanical properties. Using adult human fibroblasts extracted from skin biopsies harvested from individuals with advanced cardiovascular disease, we constructed tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs) that serve as arterial bypass grafts in long-term animal models. These TEBVs have mechanical properties similar to human blood vessels, without relying upon synthetic or exogenous scaffolding. The TEBVs are antithrombogenic and mechanically stable for 8 months in vivo. Histological analysis showed complete tissue integration and formation of vasa vasorum. The endothelium was confluent and positive for von Willebrand factor. A smooth muscle-specific alpha-actin-positive cell population developed within the TEBV, suggesting regeneration of a vascular media. Electron microscopy showed an endothelial basement membrane, elastogenesis and a complex collagen network. These results indicate that a completely biological and clinically relevant TEBV can be assembled exclusively from an individual's own cells.