Abstract

M. Paulo, C. McKittrick, L. Askiak, C. McCormick

Typical cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathology can lead to coronary artery occlusion and as a consequence, cause serious health problems such as myocardial infarction (1). Late stage treatment of coronary artery occlusion involves coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, suturing a vessel around an arterial blockage to revascularize downstream tissues. CABG can prove successful, however, limited availability of autologous vessel grafts, and functional limitations of synthetic constructs, have initiated the development of tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) (2). TEVGs improve upon the biocompatibility of synthetic constructs, through the implementation of biological cells, whilst providing a more available alternative to autologous constructs. The production of tubular TEVGs currently comprises three main methods: “sheet rolling, tubular moulding, and direct scaffolding” (3). This study aims to develop a simple and accessible direct-scaffolding technique, employed by Tabriz, which involves ‘dip-coating’ a steel rod to produce a natural polymer TEVG (3, 4). The process comprises submerging a steel rod into an alginate solution and subsequently submerging the rod into a barium chloride crosslinking agent solution, in order to improve its structural properties. The rod is then removed, leaving behind a vessel with a representative vascular lumen (4).