Dog peritoneal and pleural cavities as bioreactors to grow autologous vascular grafts

Abstract

Peritoneal and pleural cavities of large animals can function as bioreactors to grow myofibroblast tubes for use as autologous vascular grafts.

Cellular Plasticity of Inflammatory Myeloid Cells in the Peritoneal Foreign Body Response

“…On harvest, the tissue has been used as an autologous graft for replacement/repair of hollow smooth muscle organs including blood vessels, bladder, vas deferens, and uterus. [5][6][7] Over the ensuing 2 to 3 months, the grafted tissue undergoes further cell differentiation and tissue remodeling to assume the morphology and function of the host organ. 8 In addition to providing a sterile location to develop myofibroblast-rich tissue for engineering purposes, the peritoneal cavity is a convenient site to investigate the involvement of myeloid cells in the inflammatory response.…”

Animal models for the atherosclerosis research: a review

“…Hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis can also be induced in foxhounds by dietary means (Kent and Whitney, 1982), though a poor response to dietary cholesterol limits further study (Narayanaswamy et al, 2000). Regardless of these, some surgical studies have tested venous graft replacements in the dog (Chue et al, 2004). Additional disadvantages to using dogs as a model organism include the vast array of experimental agents required and certain ethical issues.…”

The Fibrotic Response to Implanted Biomaterials: Implications for Tissue Engineering

“…However despite intensive testing, the lack of compliance/strength of the resulting tissue, as well as the absence of an endothelial lining, resulted in unacceptably high rates of thrombosis, dilatation and aneurysm (Conte, 1998). More recently, our laboratory and others have used the peritoneal cavity as a 'bioreactor' to produce autologous tissue for replacement/repair of arteries (Campbell et al, 1999Chue et al, 2004) and other hollow smooth muscle organs, specifically bladder, uterus, vas deferens and urethra (Gu et al, 2009). De Visscher and co-workers used a similar technique to pre-seed acellular matrix scaffolds from bovine pericardium for use as tissue engineered heart valves (De Visscher et al, 2007, 2008Vranken et al, 2008) while Hayashida et al (2007) reported satisfactory function and mechanical properties for 'biovalves' prepared by embedding synthetic scaffolds subcutaneously for 4 weeks.…”

“…The capacity of cells within this myofibroblast-rich tissue capsule to differentiate further, if subject to the appropriate environmental cues, has also been demonstrated. For example, when grafted into an autologous artery to replace excised segments, they gradually (over 1-2 months) developed the characteristics of mature vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) and expressed the smooth muscle differentiation markers smoothelin and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain isoform SM-2 Chue et al, 2004). Tissue remodelling occurred such that the grafted tissue developed morphological characteristics of the native artery, with the luminal surface of the smooth muscle tube becoming lined by endotheliallike cells, an outer 'adventitial' layer comprising fibroblasts, collagen matrix and vasa vasora also developed.…”