Tubular scaffolds and proangiogenic 3D matrices as alternative strategies in vascular tissue engineering.

The cardiovascular disease (CDV) is a group of disorders which is the main cause of death worldwide. In the western world, it is the main cause of morbidity and mortality and its rate, compared to the other cause of death, is constantly growing. Coronary heart disease (CHD) and peripherical artery disease (PAD) are two of the principal conditions among the CVD. Today, these disorders are treated with strategies of risk-factors management, pharmaceutical therapies and surgical operation but, the mortality index is still too high. In this work, two different tissue-engineered strategies are implemented for the vascular regeneration. On one side, a device and a tubular scaffold are designed to obtain a vascular graft prototype with an endothelial cell coating on the internal surface. On the other side, a biodegradable planar scaffold is developed to deliver pro-angiogenic cells on the vascular stenosis site and induce collateralization. Both the approaches were involved in in-vivo experiments. The results a cell attachment rate, a homogeneous cell distribution over the scaffold internal surface and a 90% viability rate after 5 days of culturing, regarding the first method showed. The planar scaffolds underwent a proper cell colonization and had a good viability, density and proliferation rates at 7 days.