Issue 23, 2019, Issue in Progress

A facile method for fabricating a three-dimensional aligned fibrous scaffold for vascular application

Abstract

Vascular graft replacement remains the optimal treatment option for many vascular diseases despite advances in endovascular surgery. In this study, we proposed the use of surface topographical cues to align and maintain the phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs) which were reported as one of the vital limitations for successful graft replacement. An auxiliary electrospinning setup has been developed to collect circumferentially aligned fibres on a 3D tubular format; this micro-architecture was found to be similar to the tunica media layer of blood vessels. The presence of aligned fibres served as a signaling modality to induce cell alignment and the maintenance of the contractile phenotype. vSMCs cultured on the 3D aligned fibrous substrate were found to exhibit better cell proliferation ability and enhanced cell-shape directionality. The functional expression of the two representative intracellular contractile proteins (i.e. α-SMA and MHC) was found to exhibit definitive markers that are orderly organized as microfilament bundles. Collectively, the result suggests a possibility of adapting the 3D aligned tubular scaffold to enhance and regulate cell function along with the additional tunability of scaffold diameter and thicknesses for tailoring to the needs of individual patients or future ex vivo studies.

Graphical abstract: A facile method for fabricating a three-dimensional aligned fibrous scaffold for vascular application

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Jan 2019
Accepted
05 Apr 2019
First published
30 Apr 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 13054-13064

A facile method for fabricating a three-dimensional aligned fibrous scaffold for vascular application

F. L. Ng, Y. O. Ong, H. Z. Chen, L. Q. N. Tran, Y. Cao, B. Y. Tay and L. P. Tan, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 13054 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA00661C

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