Tissue Engineering: Creating Living Cardiovascular Grafts

Abstract

When heart valves or coronary arteries fail, the surgical implantation of a replacement structure can be a life-saving operation. Right now, replacement vessels for bypass grafting are harvested from the leg or chest of the patient, which is an additional and invasive procedure. Similarly, heart valve prostheses are currently made out of non-living materials that do not grow along with patients, which is a particular disadvantage for pediatric patients. Immediately following implantation, the structures are exposed to blood flow. The blood contains a number of cells that are capable of repairing and rebuilding tissues, for instance in the wound healing process. In this dissertation I describe the development of materials for synthetic blood vessels and heart valves that are capable of attracting these cells from the blood stream. After the material has filled itself up with these cells it stimulates them to rebuilding living, functional tissue. As time goes by the synthetic material dissolves gradually, leaving behind a new, living replacement cardiovascular structure, made from the patient’s own cells and capable of growing and adapting to the patient’s life.