Study of patency of vascular grafts manufactured by means of electrospinning

Popova I.V.¹, Stepanova A.O.^1,2, Plotnikova T.A.¹, Sergeevichev D.S.¹, Akulov A.E.³, Pokushalov A.A.¹, Laktionov P.P.^1,2, Karpenko A.A.¹

1) Scientific Research Institute for Circulatory Pathology named after Academician E.N. Meshalkin under the RF Ministry of Public Health,
2) Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine under the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
3) Institute of Cytology and Genetics under the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

In vivo experiments were carried out to study functioning of vascular grafts manufactured by means of electrospinning from solutions of polycaprolactone (PCL) and hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), PCL with 10% gelatine and a low-permeability inner layer (LPIL) 10 μm thick and PCL with 10% gelatine and LPIL (10 μm) wherein as polymeric base instead of PCL copolymer of lactic and hydroxyacetic acids (polylactide-co-glycolide, PLGA) was used. The grafts were implanted into the infrarenal portion of the aorta to 45 rats, 15 rats for each type of the graft. Patency of artificial vessels was assessed by means of magnetic resonance tomography and diagnostic ultrasound Dopplerography at 2, 4 and 20 weeks (5 animals for each time point). The state of the graft and surrounding tissues was analysed by means of intraoperative assessment, survey microscopy and survey fluorescent microscopy.

Conclusions: The obtained findings demonstrated that vascular grafts made by electrospinning technique with a low-permeability inner layer are less prone to formation of the neointima and stenosing as compared with grafts having no such layer.

KEY WORDS: electrospinning, vascular graft, polycaprolactone, polylactide-co-glycolide, neointima, patency, biocompatibility, implantation.

P. 142

« Back