title: Macromolecular biomaterials for scaffold-based vascular tissue engineering.
abstract: Cardiovascular diseases are increasingly becoming the main cause of death all over the world, which has led to an increase in the economic and social burden of such diseases. Vascular tissue engineering (VTE) is providing a route towards interesting applications, mainly focussing on the in vitro, in vivo, or combined in vitro/in vivo regeneration of small-diameter blood vessels (<6 mm) for coronary or peripheral vascular substitutions. Although different approaches have been investigated in the past two decades to achieve this aim, the most common method uses a macromolecular-based structure to scaffold cells during the regeneration process. Therefore, the aim of this work is to comprehensively review macromolecular biomaterials that were designed, developed, fabricated, and tested for scaffolding VTE. In an effort to provide a comprehensive overview, this review will mainly focus on the mechanical properties of the construct and its biological performance that results from the scaffold colonization during cell growth.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Department Materials Engineering & Research Centre, Quebec University Hospital, Laval University, Quebec City, G1K 7P4, Canada.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Couet
authors.forename: Navneeta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rajan
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mantovani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D046508:Culture Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D014652:Vascular Diseases
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials