Biomedical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA.
Stryker Neurovascular Intervention, Research and Development, Fremont, CA, 94538, USA.
Neuroradiology. 2023 Oct;65(10):1507-1515. doi: 10.1007/s00234-023-03197-8. Epub 2023 Jul 17.
Neurothrombectomy catheters can disrupt or injure the vessel wall. This potential injury is often studied in animal or cadaver models, but prior work suggests that endothelialized silicone models may be an option for early in vitro assessment. The purpose of this work was to create a complex, clinically-relevant endothelialized neurovascular silicone model, and to determine the utility of the model for evaluating vessel injury due to catheter simulated use.
Models of the ICA and MCA were fabricated out of silicone, sterilized, coated with fibronectin, placed in bioreactors, and endothelialized with HUVECs. These silicone vessels were maintained under flow for 3 and 7 days, and cellular linings were assessed. Subsequently, 24 silicone vessels were created and treated with neurovascular catheters. Vessels were accessed with a guidewire, microcatheter, and/or aspiration catheter, either once (1-pass) or three times (3-pass). Vessels were then fixed, and injury was evaluated through quantitative image analysis and a visual scoring system.
Complex silicone models were successfully endothelialized and maintained with consistent cell linings. The transparent silicone permitted catheter simulated use without fluoroscopy, and injury to the vessel wall was observed and successfully imaged and characterized. Vessels subjected to 3-passes exhibited more injury than 1-pass, and injury increased with the number and size of devices. These results illustrated expected trends and support use of these models for early assessment of vessel injury.
Complex silicone neurovascular models can be endothelialized and used in vitro to assess and compare injury due to the use of neurovascular catheters.
神经血栓切除术导管可能会破坏或损伤血管壁。这种潜在的损伤通常在动物或尸体模型中进行研究，但先前的工作表明，内皮化的硅酮模型可能是早期体外评估的一种选择。本研究的目的是创建一种复杂的、具有临床相关性的内皮化神经血管硅酮模型，并确定该模型用于评估导管模拟使用引起的血管损伤的效用。
用硅酮制作颈内动脉和大脑中动脉模型，经消毒、涂纤维连接蛋白，放入生物反应器中，用 HUVEC 内皮化。这些硅酮血管在流动状态下维持 3 天和 7 天，评估细胞衬里。随后，创建了 24 个硅酮血管，并使用神经血管导管进行处理。用导丝、微导管和/或抽吸导管对血管进行一次（1 次通过）或三次（3 次通过）处理。然后将血管固定，通过定量图像分析和可视化评分系统评估损伤。
成功地将复杂的硅酮模型内皮化并维持了一致的细胞衬里。透明的硅酮允许在没有透视的情况下模拟导管使用，并观察到对血管壁的损伤，并成功地进行了成像和特征描述。3 次通过的血管比 1 次通过的血管损伤更严重，并且损伤随着器械的数量和大小的增加而增加。这些结果说明了预期的趋势，并支持使用这些模型对血管损伤进行早期评估。
复杂的硅酮神经血管模型可以进行内皮化，并在体外用于评估和比较神经血管导管使用引起的损伤。
