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Bačáková L, Chlupáč J, Filová E, Musílková J, Tomšů J, Wu YC, Svobodová L, Pražák Š, Brož A. Vascular Damage and Repair - Are Small-Diameter Vascular Grafts Still the "Holy Grail" of Tissue Engineering? Physiol Res 2024; 73:S335-S363. [PMID: 38836460 PMCID: PMC11412351 DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.935294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in the civilized world. Stenosis or occlusion of blood vessels leads not only to events that are directly life-threatening, such as myocardial infarction or stroke, but also to a significant reduction in quality of life, for example in lower limb ischemia as a consequence of metabolic diseases. The first synthetic polymeric vascular replacements were used clinically in the early 1950s. However, they proved to be suitable only for larger-diameter vessels, where the blood flow prevents the attachment of platelets, pro-inflammatory cells and smooth muscle cells on their inner surface, whereas in smaller-diameter grafts (6 mm or less), these phenomena lead to stenosis and failure of the graft. Moreover, these polymeric vascular replacements, like biological grafts (decellularized or devitalized), are cell-free, i.e. there are no reconstructed physiological layers of the blood vessel wall, i.e. an inner layer of endothelial cells to prevent thrombosis, a middle layer of smooth muscle cells to perform the contractile function, and an outer layer to provide innervation and vascularization of the vessel wall. Vascular substitutes with these cellular components can be constructed by tissue engineering methods. However, it has to be admitted that even about 70 years after the first polymeric vascular prostheses were implanted into human patients, there are still no functional small-diameter vascular grafts on the market. The damage to small-diameter blood vessels has to be addressed by endovascular approaches or by autologous vascular substitutes, which leads to some skepticism about the potential of tissue engineering. However, new possibilities of this approach lie in the use of modern technologies such as 3D bioprinting and/or electrospinning in combination with stem cells and pre-vascularization of tissue-engineered vascular grafts. In this endeavor, sex-related differences in the removal of degradable biomaterials by the cells and in the behavior of stem cells and pre-differentiated vascular cells need to be taken into account. Key words: Blood vessel prosthesis, Regenerative medicine, Stem cells, Footprint-free iPSCs, sr-RNA, Dynamic bioreactor, Sex-related differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Bačáková
- Laboratory of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
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Rosalia M, Giacomini M, Tottoli EM, Dorati R, Bruni G, Genta I, Chiesa E, Pisani S, Sampaolesi M, Conti B. Investigation on Electrospun and Solvent-Casted PCL-PLGA Blends Scaffolds Embedded with Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Tissue Engineering. Pharmaceutics 2023; 15:2736. [PMID: 38140077 PMCID: PMC10747843 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15122736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The design, production, and characterisation of tissue-engineered scaffolds made of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), polycaprolactone (PCL) and their blends obtained through electrospinning (ES) or solvent casting/particulate leaching (SC) manufacturing techniques are presented here. The polymer blend composition was chosen to always obtain a prevalence of one of the two polymers, in order to investigate the contribution of the less concentrated polymer on the scaffolds' properties. Physical-chemical characterization of ES scaffolds demonstrated that tailoring of fibre diameter and Young modulus (YM) was possible by controlling PCL concentration in PLGA-based blends, increasing the fibre diameter from 0.6 to 1.0 µm and reducing the YM from about 22 to 9 MPa. SC scaffolds showed a "bubble-like" topography, caused by the porogen spherical particles, which is responsible for decreasing the contact angles from about 110° in ES scaffolds to about 74° in SC specimens. Nevertheless, due to phase separation within the blend, solvent-casted samples displayed less reproducible properties. Furthermore, ES samples were characterised by 10-fold higher water uptake than SC scaffolds. The scaffolds suitability as iPSCs culturing support was evaluated using XTT assay, and pluripotency and integrin gene expression were investigated using RT-PCR and RT-qPCR. Thanks to their higher wettability and appropriate YM, SC scaffolds seemed to be superior in ensuring high cell viability over 5 days, whereas the ability to maintain iPSCs pluripotency status was found to be similar for ES and SC scaffolds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariella Rosalia
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Martina Giacomini
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Erika Maria Tottoli
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Rossella Dorati
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Giovanna Bruni
- Consorzio Interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase (C.S.G.I.), Department of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Section, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 10, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
| | - Ida Genta
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Enrica Chiesa
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Silvia Pisani
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
| | - Maurilio Sampaolesi
- Translational Cardiomyology Laboratory, Head Unit of Stem Cell and Developmental Biology (SCDB), Head Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, ON4 Herestraat 49, Box 804, 3000 Leuven, Belgium;
| | - Bice Conti
- Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy; (M.R.); (M.G.); (E.M.T.); (R.D.); (I.G.); (E.C.); (S.P.)
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