title: Comparison of a closed system to a standard open technique for preparing tissue-engineered vascular grafts.
abstract: We developed a prototype for a closed apparatus for assembling tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) with the goal of creating a simple operator-independent method for making TEVGs to optimize safety and enable widespread application of this technology. The TEVG is made by seeding autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells onto a biodegradable tubular scaffold and is the first man-made vascular graft to be successfully used in humans. A critical barrier, which has prevented the widespread clinical adoption of the TEVG, is that cell isolation, scaffold seeding, and incubation are performed using an open method. To reduce the risk of contamination, the TEVG is assembled in a clean room. Clean rooms are expensive to build, complex to operate, and are not available in most hospitals. In this investigation, we used an ovine model to compare the safety and efficacy of TEVGs created using either a standard density centrifugation-based open method or the new filter-based closed system. We demonstrated no graft-related complications and maintenance of growth capacity in TEVGs created using the closed apparatus. In addition, the use of the closed system reduced the amount of time needed to assemble the TEVG by ∼ 50%. Adaptation of similar methodologies may facilitate the safe translation and the widespread use of other tissue engineering technologies.
authors.affiliation: 1 Nationwide Children's Hospital , Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Hirotsugu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kurobe
authors.forename: Mark W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Maxfield
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Naito
authors.forename: Muriel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cleary
authors.forename: Mitchel R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Stacy
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Rocco
authors.forename: Shuhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tara
authors.forename: Avione Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Sinusas
authors.forename: Edward L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinoka
authors.forename: Christopher K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Breuer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D005260:Female; D020007:Implants, Experimental; D023421:Models, Animal; D012015:Reference Standards; D012756:Sheep; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed