Preparation of electrospun PET / PU hybrid small-diameter vascular scaffold

Nowadays there is an urgent demand to a standard replacement for the blood vessels, especially, due to cardiovascular diseases. Autologous grafts are the best choice for the bypass surgeries, but they are not always available. On the other hand, synthetic vascular grafts fail when the diameter is less than 6 mm, because of the compliance mismatch which is detrimental to graft patency. Tissue engineering of vascular grafts as a new approach for fabricating synthetic tissues, attract much attention all over the world. In order to fabricate a tailored small-diameter vascular graft which can mimic the mechanical properties of the native vessels, in this study, a hybrid small-diameter vascular scaffold was developed from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyurethane (PU) by the co-electrospinning technique. PET and PU are two biocompatible polymers with different properties. The compliance and stiffness parameter of PET/PU hybrid vascular scaffold were measured and the results show an increase in compliance compared to PET grafts and an increase in stiffness parameter compared to PU scaffolds, also they are in good agreement with native vessels.

Keywords:

PET , PU hybrid vascular scaffold , electrospinning , tissue engineering