title: Successful development of small diameter tissue-engineering vascular vessels by our novel integrally designed pulsatile perfusion-based bioreactor.
abstract: Small-diameter (<4 mm) vascular constructs are urgently needed for patients requiring replacement of their peripheral vessels. However, successful development of constructs remains a significant challenge. In this study, we successfully developed small-diameter vascular constructs with high patency using our integrally designed computer-controlled bioreactor system. This computer-controlled bioreactor system can confer physiological mechanical stimuli and fluid flow similar to physiological stimuli to the cultured grafts. The medium circulating system optimizes the culture conditions by maintaining fixed concentration of O(2) and CO(2) in the medium flow and constant delivery of nutrients and waste metabolites, as well as eliminates the complicated replacement of culture medium in traditional vascular tissue engineering. Biochemical and mechanical assay of newly developed grafts confirm the feasibility of the bioreactor system for small-diameter vascular engineering. Furthermore, the computer-controlled bioreactor is superior for cultured cell proliferation compared with the traditional non-computer-controlled bioreactor. Specifically, our novel bioreactor system may be a potential alternative for tissue engineering of large-scale small-diameter vascular vessels for clinical use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, First Affiliated Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Dianwei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Songtao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Zehua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D019149:Bioreactors; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002470:Cell Survival; D003094:Collagen / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D011464:Epoprostenol / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D011312:Pressure; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D019332:Endothelin-1; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D003094:Collagen; D011464:Epoprostenol