Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Review Cells Tissues Organs 084 DOI: 10.1159/000XXXXXX Fibrin: A Natural Biodegradable Scaffold in Vascular Tissue Engineering Faisal M. Shaikh a, b Anthony Callaghan b Eamon G. Kavanagh a, b Paul E. Burke a, b Pierce A. Grace a, b Tim M. McGloughlin b a Department of Surgery, Mid-Western Regional Hospital, and b Centre for Applied Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents a growing health and socioeconomic burden in most countries around the world [Murray and Lopez, 1997; World Health Report, 2002]. Each year, CVD causes over 4.35 million deaths in Europe and over 1.9 million deaths in the Eu- ropean Union [Petersen et al., 2005]. The total estimated annual cost due to CVD is EUR 169 billion, with health- care accounting for 62% of costs [Leal et al., 2006]. De- Key Words Tissue engineering  Vascular grafts  Natural scaffolds  Biodegradable scaffolds  Fibrin gel Abstract Arterial occlusive disease remains a major health issue in the developed world and a rapidly growing problem in the de- veloping world. Although a growing number of patients are now being effectively treated with minimally invasive tech- niques, there remains a tremendous pressure on the vascu- lar community to develop a synthetic small-diameter vascu- lar graft with improved long-term patency rates. The field of tissue engineering offers an exciting alternative in the search for living organ replacement structures. Several methodolo- gies have emerged for constructing blood vessel replace- ments with biological functionality. Common strategies include cell-seeded biodegradable synthetic scaffolds, cell self-assembly, cell-seeded gels and xenogeneic acellular materials. A wide range of materials are being investigated as potential scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering appli- cations. Some are commercialised and others are still in de- velopment. Recently, researchers have studied the role of fibrin gel as a three-dimensional scaffold in vascular tissue engineering. This overview describes the properties of fibrin gel in vascular tissue engineering and highlights some re- cent progress and difficulties encountered in the develop- ment of cell fibrin scaffold technology. Copyright © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel Accepted after revision: January 7, 2008 Published online: $$$ Dr. Tim M. McGloughlin Centre for Applied Biomedical Engineering Research University of Limerick IE– $$$ Limerick (Ireland) Tel. +353 61 202 217, Fax +353 61 202 944, E-Mail tim.mcgloughlin@ul.ie © 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel 1422–6405/08/0000–0000$24.50/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/cto Abbreviations used in the paper ACA -aminocaproic acid BM-TEV bone marrow tissue-engineered vessels CVD cardiovascular disease EC endothelial cell ECGF endothelial cell growth factor ECM extracellular matrix EPCs endothelial progenitor cells ePTFE expanded polytetrafluoroethylene hTERT human telomerase reverse transcriptase MFB myofibroblasts NE norepinephrine PGA polyglycolic acid PTFE polytetrafluoroethylene SMCs smooth muscle cells SNAP sodium nitroprusside derivative TEVs tissue-engineered vessels CTO084.indd 1 CTO084.indd 1 29.04.2008 15:36:11 29.04.2008 15:36:11