Bioresorbable Polymeric Scaffold in Cardiovascular Applications

Abstract

Advances in material science and innovative medical technologies have allowed the development of less invasive interventional procedures for deploying implant devices, including scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering. Biodegradable materials (e.g., resorbable polymers) are employed in devices that are only needed for a transient period. In the case of coronary stents, the device is only required for 6–8 months before positive remodelling takes place. Hence, biodegradable polymeric stents have been considered to promote this positive remodelling and eliminate the issue of permanent caging of the vessel. In tissue engineering, the role of the scaffold is to support favourable cell-scaffold interaction to stimulate formation of functional tissue. The ideal outcome is for the cells to produce their own extracellular matrix over time and eventually replace the implanted scaffold or tissue engineered construct. Synthetic biodegradable polymers are the favoured candidates as scaffolds, because their degradation rates can be manipulated over a broad time scale, and they may be functionalised easily. This review presents an overview of coronary heart disease, the limitations of current interventions and how biomaterials can be used to potentially circumvent these shortcomings in bioresorbable stents, vascular grafts and cardiac patches. The material specifications, type of polymers used, current progress and future challenges for each application will be discussed in this manuscript.

Tissue-Engineered Carotid Artery Interposition Grafts Demonstrate High Primary Patency and Promote Vascular Tissue Regeneration in the Ovine Model

“…The fabrication of a commercially available off-the-shelf vascular graft requires excellent biocompatibility of its polymer composition for successful adhesion, migration, and proliferation of peripheral blood-derived cells, as well as to avert calcification [9][10][11]. Further, the appropriate prototype must possess a good haemocompatibility to prevent acute thrombosis and, ideally, should have a compliance profile similar with native coronary artery or IMA for precluding aneurysms and neointimal hyperplasia [9][10][11].…”

“…The fabrication of a commercially available off-the-shelf vascular graft requires excellent biocompatibility of its polymer composition for successful adhesion, migration, and proliferation of peripheral blood-derived cells, as well as to avert calcification [9][10][11]. Further, the appropriate prototype must possess a good haemocompatibility to prevent acute thrombosis and, ideally, should have a compliance profile similar with native coronary artery or IMA for precluding aneurysms and neointimal hyperplasia [9][10][11]. Current additive manufacturing technologies permit layer-by-layer incorporation of bioactive factors (e.g., growth factors or chemokines) to the tubular scaffold and their controlled release to guide endothelial/vascular smooth muscle specification and vascular tissue regeneration [11].…”

Polymeric Biomaterials for the Treatment of Cardiac Post-Infarction Injuries

“…CHI is another key material explored for cardiac applications because of either its sustainability (it is a by-product of the food industry), biocompatibility, biodegradability, and antibacterial properties, or its cationic nature, promoting the interaction with the anionic glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans of the cardiac ECM [ 95 ]. The latter is a key determining factor for cardiac applications, since the presence of glycosaminoglycan in the cardiac ECM is a critical factor for modulating the functionalities of specific proteins, such as growth factors [ 96 ].…”

Effect of Homochirality of Dipeptide to Polymers’ Degradation

“…With the growing problem of white pollution, degradable polymer materials are attracting more and more attention because polymer materials that can be degraded at controllable speed could be used in every kind of fields [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. So, the study of influence factors to degradability and degradable speed of polymer materials has important scientific significance.…”