Premium
Factorial design optimization and in vivo feasibility of poly(ε‐caprolactone)‐micro‐ and nanofiber‐based small diameter vascular grafts
Author(s) -
Nottelet B.,
Pektok E.,
Mandracchia D.,
Tille J.C.,
Walpoth B.,
Gurny R.,
Möller M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.32023
Subject(s) - materials science , caprolactone , fractional factorial design , nanofiber , biomedical engineering , ultimate tensile strength , electrospinning , factorial experiment , composite material , tissue engineering , polymer , polymerization , medicine , statistics , mathematics
Because of the severe increase of mortality by cardiovascular diseases, there has been rising interest among the tissue‐engineering community for small‐sized blood vessel substitutes. Here we present small diameter vascular grafts made of slow degradable poly(ε‐caprolactone) nanofibers obtained by electrospinning. The process was optimized by a factorial design approach that led to reproducible grafts with inner diameters of 2 and 4 mm, respectively. Fiber sizes, graft morphology, and the resulting tensile stress and tensile strain values were studied as a function of various parameters in order to obtain optimal vascular grafts for implantation after γ‐sterilization. The influence of polymer concentration, solvent, needle‐collector distance, applied voltage, flow rate, and spinning time has been studied. Consequently, an optimized vascular graft was implanted as an abdominal aortic substitute in nine rats for a feasibility study. Results are given following up a 12‐week implantation period showing good patency, endothelization, and cell ingrowth. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2009