title: Computational model of the in vivo development of a tissue engineered vein from an implanted polymeric construct.
abstract: Advances in vascular tissue engineering have been tremendous over the past 15 years, yet there remains a need to optimize current constructs to achieve vessels having true growth potential. Toward this end, it has been suggested that computational models may help hasten this process by enabling time-efficient parametric studies that can reduce the experimental search space. In this paper, we present a first generation computational model for describing the in vivo development of a tissue engineered vein from an implanted polymeric scaffold. The model was motivated by our recent data on the evolution of mechanical properties and microstructural composition over 24 weeks in a mouse inferior vena cava interposition graft. It is shown that these data can be captured well by including both an early inflammatory-mediated and a subsequent mechano-mediated production of extracellular matrix. There remains a pressing need, however, for more data to inform the development of next generation models, particularly the precise transition from the inflammatory to the mechanobiological dominated production of matrix having functional capability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Surgical Research and Regenerative Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Y U
authors.initials: YU
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Naito
authors.affiliation: Surgical Research and Regenerative Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Breuer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: jay.humphrey@yale.edu.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Humphrey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D005109:Extracellular Matrix; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011108:Polymers; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: Constrained mixture theory; Inflammation; Interposition graft; Mechanosensing; Mouse model; Tissue engineering