Generation, Endothelialization, and Microsurgical Suture Anastomosis of Strong 1-mm-Diameter Collagen Tubes

作者：Xuanyue Li, Jing Xu, Calin Nicolescu, Jordann T. Marinelli, Joe Tien · 发表于：Tissue Engineering Part A · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.1089/ten.tea.2016.0339 · 被引用次数：39 · 研究领域：Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications、Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine、Bone Tissue Engineering Materials

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.