Tissue Engineering of Blood Vessels: Functional Requirements, Progress, and Future Challenges

Vascular disease results in the decreased utility and decreased availability of autologus vascular tissue for small diameter (<6 mm) vessel replacements. While synthetic polymer alternatives to date have failed to meet the performance of autogenous conduits, tissue-engineered replacement vessels represent an ideal solution to this clinical problem. Ongoing progress requires combined approaches from biomaterials science, cell biology, and translational medicine to develop feasible solutions with the requisite mechanical support, a non-fouling surface for blood flow, and tissue regeneration. Over the past two decades interest in blood vessel tissue engineering has soared on a global scale, resulting in the first clinical implants of multiple technologies, steady progress with several other systems, and critical lessons-learned. This review will highlight the current inadequacies of autologus and synthetic grafts, the engineering requirements for implantation of tissue-engineered grafts, and the current status of tissue-engineered blood vessel research.