Development of a Tissue-Engineered Bypass Graft Seeded with Stem Cells

Abstract

The gold standard conduit for bypass of diseased small-diameter arteries remains autologous vascular tissue. In the absence of such tissue, patients are offered bypass with prosthetic material, with far less durable results. Vascular tissue engineering, the creation of a vascular conduit by seeding a tubular scaffold with various cells, may offer an alternative approach to this difficult situation. Herein we review some of the significant challenges that remain in designing an ideal vascular conduit and outline potential solutions offered by a graft created by seeding natural vascular tissue (decellularized vein allograft) with readily available autologous cells (adipose-derived stem cells).

Human Adipose Stem Cells: A Potential Cell Source for Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering

“…Research efforts towards understanding the nature of how ASCs differentiate into cells of the cardiovascular lineage, including ECs and SMCs, have become more intensive in the past years. Recent studies have shown that ASCs are capable of differentiating into either SMCs [Lee et al, 2006;Rodriguez et al, 2006] or cells of an EC phenotype [Planat-Bénard et al, 2004b;Dimuzio et al, 2006;Wosnitza et al, 2007]. However, the differentiation protocols employed in those studies are rather diverse, using complex cell culture media that are supplemented with various growth factors.…”

Human adipose-derived stromal cells for the production of completely autologous self-assembled tissue-engineered vascular substitutes

“…Indeed, given ASC's differentiation capabilities, they were evaluated both as an EC source to form an endothelium-like monolayer in grafts lumen; or as a SMC source to seed vascular scaffolds. Among the research groups using ASC to replace the endothelium, some have seeded grafts with undifferentiated ASC and used them as is [23]; while most have differentiated ASC toward endothelial cell lineage in vitro before or after grafts' seeding [21,24]. Although one advantage of the use of ASC over mature EC to endothelialize vascular grafts relies on their ease of harvest and availability, the time required for differentiation and the suboptimal functionality of the resulting endothelial-like cells may counteract this advantage.…”

The Future of Cell Therapy and Tissue Engineering in Cardiovascular Disease: The New Era of Biological Therapeutics

“…In recent years, interest has rapidly grown in the developmental plasticity and therapeutic potential of stromal cells isolated from human subcutaneous adipose tissue. It has been shown that adult stem cells from white adipose tissues can differentiate into multiple cell phenotypes, including the adipocyte, chondrocyte, epithelial, hematopoietic, hepatocyte, neuronal, myogenic, and osteoblast lineages (Halvorsen YC 2000;Halvorsen YD 2001;Zuk PA 2001;Erickson GR 2002;Safford KM 2002;Zuk PA 2002;Cousin B 2003;Gimble J 2003a;Gimble JM 2003b;Kang SK 2003;Rangappa S 2003;Miranville A 2004;Planat-Benard V 2004a;Planat-Benard V 2004b;Rodriguez LV 2006 Dimuzio P 2006;Wosnitza M 2007). However, the differentiation protocols employed in those studies are rather diverse, using complex cell culture media that are supplemented with various growth factors.…”