title: Tissue engineering vascular grafts a fortiori: looking back and going forward.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease often necessitate the surgical repair using conduits. Although autografts still remain the gold standard, the inconvenience of harvesting and/or insufficient availability in patients with atherosclerotic disease has given impetus to look into alternative sources for vascular grafts.
  
  
  METHODS
  There are four main techniques to produce tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs): i) biodegradable synthetic scaffolds; ii) gel-based scaffolds; iii) decellularised scaffolds and iv) self-assembled cell-sheet-based techniques. The first three techniques can be grouped together as scaffold-guided approach as it involves the use of a construct to function as a supportive framework for the vascular graft. The most significant advantages of TEVGs are that it possesses the ability to grow, remodel and respond to environmental factors. Cell sources for TEVGs include mature somatic cells, stem cells, adult progenitor cells and pluripotent stem cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TEVG holds great promise with advances in nanotechnology, coupled with important refinements in tissue engineering and decellularisation techniques. This will undoubtedly be an important milestone for cardiovascular medicine when it is eventually translated to clinical use.
authors.affiliation: University College London (UCL), Centre for Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine, UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, Research Department of Nanotechnology , London NW3 2QG , UK +44 207 830 2901 ; a.seifalian@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: G
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Buket
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gundogan
authors.forename: Yasmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Farhatnia
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nayyer
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahdibeiraghdar
authors.forename: Jayakumar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rajadas
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Coppi
authors.forename: Alun H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Seifalian
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D000818:Animals; D001705:Bioprosthesis / Q000639:trends; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis / Q000639:trends*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D048091:Guided Tissue Regeneration / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: arterial grafts; tissue-engineered blood vessels; tissue-engineered vascular grafts; vascular replacement; vascular tissue engineering