组织工程血管的研究进展

Progress of tissue-engineered blood vessels

血管移植是最常用的治疗心脏疾病及周围血管疾病的方法。虽然目前在人工血管的研究方面已经获得了一定的进展,但人工血管移植,尤其是在小口径人工血管(<6mm)移植后,常会因为种种原因(如早期的血栓形成、感染等)而导致移植失败。组织工程学是一门全新的学科,它为人工血管的研究提供了另一条潜力巨大的途径,它通过将自体细胞种植于可降解支架上而最终得到血管代替品,有望能解决小口径人工血管移植的远期通畅率低下的问题。本文将就组织工程血管领域的主要研究进展作一综述,包括种子细胞的来源、生物可降解支架、组织工程血管的培养技术以及纳米技术的应用。

Vascular bypass grafting is the most common procedure for ischemic heart disease and peripheral vascular disease. Although synthetic grafts have been developed, replacement of vessels with purely synthetic polymeric conduits often leads to the failure of such graft, especially in the grafts less than 6 mm in diameter, mainly due to the early formation of thrombosis, infection and so on. Tissue engineering is a relatively new discipline that offers the potential to create vascular grafts from autologous cells and biodegradable polymer scaffolds. It has become a promising approach for generating a biocompatible vessel graft and contributing to the long-term patency rate of small-caliber grafts. This review describes the major progress in the tissue engineering vascular grafts, including the seeding cell sources, the biodegradable scaffolds, the construction technologies of tissue-engineered vessels, as well as nanotechnology.