Development of vascular disease models to explore disease causation and pathomechanisms of rare vascular diseases

Vascular organs-on-chip made with patient-derived endothelial cells: technologies to transform drug discovery and disease modeling

INTRODUCTION

Vascular diseases impart a tremendous burden on healthcare systems in the United States and across the world. Efforts to improve therapeutic interventions are hindered by limitations of current experimental models. The integration of patient-derived cells with organ-on-chip (OoC) technology is a promising avenue for preclinical drug screening that improves upon traditional cell culture and animal models.

AREAS COVERED

The authors review induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOEC) as two sources for patient-derived endothelial cells (EC). They summarize several studies that leverage patient-derived EC and OoC for precision disease modeling of the vasculature, with a focus on applications for drug discovery. They also highlight the utility of patient-derived EC in other translational endeavors, including ex vivo organogenesis and multi-organ-chip integration.

EXPERT OPINION

Precision disease modeling continues to mature in the academic space, but end-use by pharmaceutical companies is currently limited. To fully realize their transformative potential, OoC systems must balance their complexity with their ability to integrate with the highly standardized and high-throughput experimentation required for drug discovery and development.

PBAT/gelatin hybrid nanofibers based on post-double network bond processing as a promising vascular substitute

The development of injured vascular tissue substitutes with proangiogenic, anti-thrombus, and anti-hyperplasia activity still remains a major challenge in vascular tissue engineering. In this study, we have prepared a series of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/gelatin hybrid nanofibers (P/G) through random electrospinning and post-double network bond crosslinking for process optimization according to physiochemical and mechanical properties as well as promoting enhanced vascular cell viability in vitro. The gelatin matrix was shown to be successfully contained in the bicomponent hybrid P/G nanofibers, and the formed P/G nanofibers exhibited a uniform and smooth morphology. Importantly, the bicomponent hybrid nanofibers showed a potentially reliable ability to promote the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). In addition, all the results demonstrated the significantly stable microstructure, appropriate surface wettability, matched mechanical properties, and excellent blood compatibility, cellular compatibility, and histocompatibility of hybrid nanofibers containing 15 wt% gelation (P/G-15) compared to PG-0, P/G-5, and PG-25 groups, indicating their potential for vascular injury healing.

A PBAT/gelatin hybrid nanofibers vascular graft containing 15 wt% gelation (P/G-15) exhibited matched mechanical properties, especially they demonstrate excellent blood compatibility, cellular compatibility, and histocompatibility in rabbit carotid artery model.