Tissue engineering a blood vessel: regulation of vascular biology by mechanical stresses.
Important to the tissue engineering of a substitute blood vessel is an understanding of those factors which regulate vascular biology. A major factor in this regulation is the mechanical environment imposed by the hemodynamics of the vascular system. In this the vascular endothelium plays a critical role, and over the past two decades much has been learned about the influence of hemodynamics on vascular endothelial biology, to a large degree using cell culture to study the effects of flow and cyclic stretch. In our laboratory, such studies are now being extended through the development of a model of the arterial wall involving the co-culture of endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. The development of such a model and its use in the study of hemodynamic effects represents necessary steps in the evolution of approaches to tissue engineering a blood vessel.
Ziegler
T
T
Biomechanics Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta 30332-0405.
Nerem
R M
RM
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001709:Biotechnology; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000502:physiology*; D015195:Drug Design; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000502:physiology*; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures
D001672:Biocompatible Materials