title: Smooth Muscle Cell Alignment and Phenotype Control by Melt Spun Polycaprolactone Fibers for Seeding of Tissue Engineered Blood Vessels.
abstract: A method has been developed to induce and retain a contractile phenotype for vascular smooth muscle cells, as the first step towards the development of a biomimetic blood vessel construct with minimal compliance mismatch. Melt spun PCL fibers were deposited on a mandrel to form aligned fibers of 10 μm in diameter. The fibers were bonded into aligned arrangement through dip coating in chitosan solution. This formed a surface of parallel grooves, 10 μm deep by 10 μm across, presenting a surface layer of chitosan to promote cell surface interactions. The aligned fiber surface was used to culture cells present in the vascular wall, in particular fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. This topography induced "surface guidance" over the orientation of the cells, which adopted an elongated spindle-like morphology, whereas cells on the unpatterned control surface did not show such orientation, assuming more rhomboid shapes. The preservation of VSMC contractile phenotype on the aligned scaffold was demonstrated by the retention of α-SMA expression after several days of culture. The effect was assessed on a prototype vascular graft prosthesis fabricated from polylactide caprolactone; VSMCs aligned longitudinally along a fiberless tube, whereas, for the aligned fiber coated tubes, the VSMCs aligned in the required circumferential orientation.
authors.affiliation: Materials and Science Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, N4.1-01-30, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Animesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.affiliation: Materials and Science Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, N4.1-01-30, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Bae Hoon
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Materials and Science Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, N4.1-01-30, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Irvine
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: Materials and Science Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, N4.1-01-30, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Ramya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhuthalingam
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India.
authors.forename: Vaishali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551.
authors.forename: Kok Yao
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Low
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Chee Kai
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.affiliation: Materials and Science Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, N4.1-01-30, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Subbu S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Venkatraman