Development of growing cardiovascular grafts using bioabsorbable materials

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K22671
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 55:Surgery of the organs maintaining homeostasis and related fields
• Research Institution: Asahikawa Medical College
• Principal Investigator: Takewa Yoshiaki 旭川医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (20332405)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 生体吸収性素材 / 移植片（グラフト） / 生体適合性 / 生分解性 / 圧電性ポリ乳酸 / ポリエチレンテレフタレート / 自己組織移植片 / 組織の炎症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we evaluated the basic performance of biocompatible and electrically charged piezoelectric polylactic acid fibers as bioabsorbable surgical grafts for heart valves and blood vessels, and examined their feasibility for clinical application. The piezoelectric polylactic acid fibers, when implanted in vivo, varied in the degree of cellular implantation into the fibers depending on the number of twist of the twisted threads, caused mild tissue inflammation and less local infection, and hardly biodegraded after 2-6 months of implantation. In addition, when used in combination with autologous collagen tissue as a substitute blood vessel in a large animal (adult goat), it remained free of adverse events such as bleeding and infection after 30 days. These results suggest that piezoelectric polylactic acid fibers have potential as a graft for cardiovascular surgery.

Free Research Field

心臓血管外科学、人工臓器学、再生医療

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ポリ乳酸は生体適合性の良い吸収性の素材として、植込み用の医用材料としても広く用いられて来たが、本研究のように、ポリ乳酸繊維の中に自己細胞の侵入を促し移植後の体内で組織を形成させる足場として利用する構想はこれまでに見られない。また、本研究で検討する圧電性ポリ乳酸繊維は、表面に電場を発生させるという性質を持った特殊素材であり、細胞接着性など生体適合性についての検討は、殆ど為されておらず、本研究で得られる知見は他の医用材料者研究者にとっても大いに参考になると予想される。