Evaluation of an engineered vascular graft exhibiting somatic growth in lambs to model repair of absent pulmonary artery branch.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Growth is the holy grail of tissue implants in pediatrics. No vascular graft currently in use for surgical repairs of congenital heart defects has somatic growth capacity.

Methods

Biologically-engineered grafts (6 mm) grown from donor ovine fibroblasts in a sacrificial fibrin gel were implanted into the left pulmonary branch of 3-month old lambs for 3, 6, and 18 months. A control group of Propaten® PTFE grafts was implanted for 6 months.

Results

The engineered grafts exhibit extensive site-appropriate recellularization after only 3 months and near-normal increase of diameter from the preimplant value of 6 mm to 12.9 mm and also a doubling of length from 6.0 mm to 13.0 mm at 6 months (n = 3) associated with apparent somatic graft growth (collagen content inc

SUBMITTER: Syedain ZH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11480500 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature