College of Life Science and Technology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, People's Republic of China.
Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, People's Republic of China.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2020 Nov 6;15:8697-8715. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S274459. eCollection 2020.
The development of tissue-engineered blood vessels provides a new source of donors for coronary artery bypass grafting and peripheral blood vessel transplantation. Fibrin fiber has good biocompatibility and is an ideal tissue engineering vascular scaffold, but its mechanical property needs improvement.
We mixed polyurethane (PU) and fibrin to prepare the PU/fibrin vascular scaffolds by using electrospinning technology in order to enhance the mechanical properties of fibrin scaffold. We investigated the morphological, mechanical strength, hydrophilicity, degradation, blood and cell compatibility of PU/fibrin (0:100), PU/fibrin (5:95), PU/fibrin (15:85) and PU/fibrin (25:75) vascular scaffolds. Based on the results in vitro, PU/fibrin (15:85) was selected for transplantation in vivo to repair vascular defects, and the extracellular matrix formation, vascular remodeling, and immune response were evaluated.
The results indicated that the fiber diameter of the PU/fibrin (15:85) scaffold was about 712nm. With the increase of PU content, the mechanical strength of the composite scaffolds increased, however, the degradation rate decreased gradually. The PU/fibrin scaffold showed good hydrophilicity and hemocompatibility. PU/fibrin (15:85) vascular scaffold could promote the adhesion and proliferation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Quantitative RT-PCR experimental results showed that the expression of collagen, survivin and vimentin genes in PU/fibrin (15:85) was higher than that in PU/fibrin (25:75). The results in vivo indicated the mechanical properties and compliance of PU/fibrin grafts could meet clinical requirements and the proportion of thrombosis or occlusion was significantly lower. The graft showed strong vasomotor response, and the smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, and ECM deposition of the neoartery were comparable to that of native artery after 3 months. At 3 months, the amount of macrophages in PU/fibrin grafts was significantly lower, and the secretion of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines decreased.
PU/fibrin (15:85) vascular scaffolds had great potential to be used as small-diameter tissue engineering blood vessels.
组织工程血管的发展为冠状动脉旁路移植术和外周血管移植提供了新的供体来源。纤维蛋白纤维具有良好的生物相容性，是一种理想的组织工程血管支架，但机械性能需要提高。
我们采用静电纺丝技术将聚氨酯（PU）和纤维蛋白混合，制备了 PU/纤维蛋白血管支架，以增强纤维蛋白支架的机械性能。我们研究了 PU/纤维蛋白（0:100）、PU/纤维蛋白（5:95）、PU/纤维蛋白（15:85）和 PU/纤维蛋白（25:75）血管支架的形态、力学强度、亲水性、降解、血液和细胞相容性。基于体外结果，选择 PU/纤维蛋白（15:85）进行体内移植修复血管缺损，并评估细胞外基质形成、血管重塑和免疫反应。
结果表明，PU/纤维蛋白（15:85）支架的纤维直径约为 712nm。随着 PU 含量的增加，复合支架的力学强度增加，但降解率逐渐降低。PU/纤维蛋白支架具有良好的亲水性和血液相容性。PU/纤维蛋白支架能促进间充质基质细胞（MSCs）的黏附和增殖。定量 RT-PCR 实验结果表明，PU/纤维蛋白（15:85）中胶原、survivin 和波形蛋白基因的表达均高于 PU/纤维蛋白（25:75）。体内结果表明，PU/纤维蛋白移植物的力学性能和顺应性能够满足临床要求，血栓或闭塞的比例明显降低。移植物具有较强的血管运动反应，新动脉的平滑肌细胞、内皮细胞和 ECM 沉积与天然动脉相当，3 个月后。3 个月时，PU/纤维蛋白移植物中的巨噬细胞数量明显减少，促炎和抗炎细胞因子的分泌减少。
PU/纤维蛋白（15:85）血管支架具有作为小直径组织工程血管的巨大潜力。
