Gene-engineered hybrid prostheses for small vascular reconstruction

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14380387
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biomedical engineering/Biological material science
• Research Institution: Asahikawa Medical College
• Principal Investigator: HIRATA Satoshi Asahikawa Medical College, Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (80199067)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SASAJIMA Tadahiro Asahikawa Medical College, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (20109515) ; AZUMA Nobuyoshi Asahikawa Medical College, Associate Professor, 医学部, 講師 (30250559) ; AKASAKA Nobuyuki Asahikawa Medical College, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 助手 (30281885)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2005
• Keywords: small caliber proshteses / hybrid artificial graft / gene transfer / alloeraft / decellularized graft / HVJ / HCG / intimal hyperplasia

Research Abstract

Difficulty of the healing process between human being and artificial materials is main cause of graft failure of artificial arterial prostheses in small caliber arterial reconstruction. This research project has been perform in order to overcome this problem and establish small caliber prostheses.
To resolve this difficult situation, we perform the following research and try to 1)establish of gene transfer methods for vascular cells, 2)developement of small caliber arterial graft.
1)Establish of gene transfer methods for vascular wall cells : We perform gene transfer to blood vessel by three different methods including pressure method, HVJ-Envelope vector method, and ultrasonic method, and evaluate the transfer efficiency and degree of structural damage of vessel wall. As the results of this research, the HVJ-Envelope method is most effective and less invasive for gene transfer to vessel wall cells.
2)Development of small caliber prostheses : smooth muscle cell seeding hybrid artificial p rostheses was evaluated in vitro as well as in vivo. Human cell growth as well as cell repopulation on the artificial material is much inferior compared to other species, even if growth factors supply or hepatic growth factor gene transfer. Anti-thrombotic characteristics is also unsolved problem for small caliber artificial prostheses. Therefore, hybrid artificial grafts were all occluded in canine femoral arterial reconstruction model. On the other hands, biologic materials such as arterial allograft have superior characteristics regarding antithrombogenecity and cell repopulation.
In conclusion, it is still difficult to establish small caliber artificial prostheses because of human system against artificial materials. However, the biological materials such as allograft have promising characteristics in terms of anti-thrombogenicity and cell repopulation. So, tissue engineered allograft such as decellularized allograft or gene transferred allograft are next target of small caliber prostheses.