DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED SMALL-DIAMETER VASCULAR GRAFT

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, A MAJOR GOAL OF VASCULAR SURGERY HAS BEEN TO IMPROVE BYPASS SURGERY THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN IDEAL PROSTHETIC GRAFT. ALTHOUGH SAPHENOUS VEIN IS THE PREFERRED SUBSTRATE FOR OCCLUDED SMALL-TO-MEDIUM VEINS, FREQUENTLY IT IS UNAVAILABLE OR UNSUITABLE FOR A GREAT NUMBER OF PATIENTS WHO NEED THIS SURGERY. TWO OF THE PROBLEMS THAT HAVE IMPAIRED THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUCH A GRAFT ARE POOR CELL ATTACHMENT TO SEEDING GRAFTS AND POOR RETENTION OF CELLS BY GRAFTS WHEN EXPOSED TO IN VITRO AND IN VIVO FLOW CONDITIONS. ALTHOUGH THE USE OF FIBRONECTIN HAS RESULTED IN SOME IMPROVEMENTS WITH RESPECT TO THESE PARAMETERS, DEVELOPMENT OF GRAFTS IS STILL FAR FROM COMPLETE. THIS RESEARCH WILL INVOLVE EXPERIMENTS ON MUSSEL ADHESIVE PROTEIN (MAP), WHICH HAS THE POTENTIAL TO INCREASE THE ADHESTION OF CELLS TO GRAFTS IN VITRO AND IN VIVO. MAP HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE EFFECTIVE AS A CELL-ATTACHMENT FACTOR IN VITRO AND IS BIOCOMPATIBLE WITH CELLS AND TISSUES. EXPERIMENTS ARE DESIGNED TO EXPLORE ATTACHMENT EFFICIENCY OF CELLS TO GRAFTS AND THE RETENTION OF THESE CELLS BY GRAFTS DURING PERFUSION.