Reconstruction of the pulmonary artery by a novel biodegradable conduit engineered with perinatal stem cell-derived vascular smooth muscle cells enables physiological vascular growth in a large animal model of congenital heart disease. (October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ghorbel, Mohamed T.; Jia, Huidong; Swim, Megan M.; Iacobazzi, Dominga; Albertario, Ambra; Zebele, Carlo; Holopherne-Doran, Delphine; Hollander, Anthony; Madeddu, Paolo; Caputo, Massimo
• Is Part Of: Biomaterials. Volume 217(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-10
• Subjects: Congenital heart disease -- Stem cells -- Tissue-engineering -- Grafts; Biomedical materials -- Periodicals; Biocompatible Materials -- Periodicals; Biomatériaux -- Périodiques; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.119284
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-9612

Abstract

Abstract: Lack of growth potential of available grafts represents a bottleneck in the correction of congenital heart defects. Here we used a swine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) graft functionalized with mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), for replacement of the pulmonary artery in piglets. MSCs were expanded from human umbilical cord blood or new-born swine peripheral blood, seeded onto decellularized SIS grafts and conditioned in a bioreactor to differentiate into VSMCs. Results indicate the equivalence of generating grafts engineered with human or swine MSC-derived VSMCs. Next, we conducted a randomized, controlled study in piglets (12–15 kg), which had the left pulmonary artery reconstructed with swine VSMC-engineered or acellular conduit grafts. Piglets recovered well from surgery, with no casualty and similar growth rate in either group. After 6 months, grafted arteries had larger circumference in the cellular group (28.3 ± 2.3 vs 18.3 ± 2.1 mm, P < 0.001), but without evidence of aneurism formation. Immunohistochemistry showed engineered grafts were composed of homogeneous endothelium covered by multi-layered muscular media, whereas the acellular grafts exhibited a patchy endothelial cell layer and a thinner muscular layer. Results: show the feasibility and efficacy of pulmonary artery reconstruction using clinically available grafts engineered with allogeneic VSMCs in growing swine.