Development of Small Diameter Fibrous Vascular Grafts with Outer Wall Multiscale Architecture to Improve Cell Penetration

This work explains about the development of a unique tubular scaffold for vascular tissue engineering. The inner layer/layers was made up of aligned poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nano fibers and outer layers were composed of random multiscale fibers of poly(caprolactone) (PCL)/PLA providing larger pores for Smooth Muscle Cell (SMC) penetration. The fabricated scaffolds were characterized by SEM. Cell attachment and infiltration studies using SMCs on the multiscale fibers were characterized by SEM and confocal microscopy. Blood compatibility of the scaffold was analysed by haemolysis-coagulation assays, platelet activation studies and the effect of material/fiber alignment on the morphological stability of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) were evaluated using SEM. Since this hierarchically designed tubular scaffold closely mimics the morphology of native vessel, this could be a better candidate for vascular tissue engineering.