title: Drug releasing systems in cardiovascular tissue engineering.
abstract: Heart disease and atherosclerosis are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The lack of suitable autologous grafts has produced a need for artificial grafts; however, current artificial grafts carry significant limitations, including thrombosis, infection, limited durability and the inability to grow. Tissue engineering of blood vessels, cardiovascular structures and whole organs is a promising approach for creating replacement tissues to repair congenital defects and/or diseased tissues. In an attempt to surmount the shortcomings of artificial grafts, tissue-engineered cardiovascular graft (TECVG), constructs obtained using cultured autologous vascular cells seeded onto a synthetic biodegradable polymer scaffold, have been developed. Autologous TECVGs have the potential advantages of growth, durability, resistance to infection, and freedom from problems of rejection, thrombogenicity and donor scarcity. Moreover polymers engrafted with growth factors, cytokines, drugs have been developed allowing drug-releasing systems capable of focused and localized delivery of molecules depending on the environmental requirements and the milieu in which the scaffold is placed. A broad range of applications for compound-releasing, tissue-engineered grafts have been suggested ranging from drug delivery to gene therapy. This review will describe advances in the development of drug-delivery systems for cardiovascular applications focusing on the manufacturing techniques and on the compounds delivered by these systems to date.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heart, Lung & Esophageal Surgery Institute University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spadaccio
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chello
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trombetta
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rainer
authors.forename: Yoshiya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Toyoda
authors.forename: Jorge A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Genovese
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002319:Cardiovascular System; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations