title: Generation, Endothelialization, and Microsurgical Suture Anastomosis of Strong 1-mm-Diameter Collagen Tubes.
abstract: Tissue-engineered vascular grafts that are based on reconstituted extracellular matrices have been plagued by weak mechanical strength that prevents handling or anastomosis to native vessels. In this study, we devise a method for making dense, suturable collagen tubular constructs of diameter ≤1 mm for potential microsurgical applications, by dehydrating tubes of native rat tail type I collagen and crosslinking them with 20 mM genipin. Crosslinked dense collagen tubes with 1 mm inner diameter yielded ultimate tensile strength of 342 ± 15 gF and burst pressure of 1313 ± 156 mm Hg, comparable to the strength of a rat femoral artery, and supported endothelial cell adhesion and growth. End-to-end anastomosis of 0.5-mm-diameter tubes to explanted arteries displayed anastomotic strength of 82 ± 21 gF, which is sufficient for surgical applications. In vivo implantation of cell-free tubes as interpositional grafts in the rat femoral circulation yielded stable anastomosis with blood flow for 20 min. Seeded dense collagen tubes represent a promising alternative to venous graft that can potentially be used to bridge between short artery stubs in replantation surgeries.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Xuanyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Calin T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Nicolescu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jordann T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Marinelli
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts.|2 Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Boston University , Brookline, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tien
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000166:cytology; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry*; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D013718:Tensile Strength; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen
keywords: endothelial cells; genipin; microsurgery; vascular graft; vascular tissue engineering