• Innovative Nanoscience approaches in vascular tissue engineering
  • Sonia Fathi Karkan,1,* Reza Maleki Baladi,2 Reza Rahbar Ghazi,3
    1. Department of medical Nanotechnology, faculty of Advanced Medical Science, Tabriz University of medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran
    2. Young Researchers and Elite Club, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran


  • Introduction: "The vascular disease" is a common word that mentions to a group of problems that affects blood vessels. People with vascular disease may have problems like Coronary Vascular Disease (CVD), Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), heart attack, Which can lead to death in acute conditions. meanwhile, vascular transplantation seems to be very necessary. Tissue engineering is one of the new sciences regarded in recent years that its main purpose is to use the logistic design principles to recreate the proper signals for cells that create biological alternative processes and can restore, maintain, and recover the role of the damaged tissue. Vascular tissue engineering is a modern and effective therapy for vascular disease. The successful function of this method is depended on the construction of a scaffold with conditions corresponding to the natural structure of the vessel and the culturing of appropriate cells into this scaffold.
  • Methods: several approaches have been used for vascular tissue engineering. Nanotechnology as a leading procedure in architecting new materials and scaffolds used in tissue engineering is considerable. These nanomaterials have stupendous properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, imitation of extracellular matrix, favorable physical and mechanical properties, etc
  • Results: In recent years, biocompatible scaffolds that enhance cell proliferation and differentiation have been developed. However, biochemical signals lead to cell growth, cell differentiation and cell alignment require a three-dimensional structure. Given the constraints on which scaffold-based vascular tissue engineering involves adverse reactions to the host's natural tissue, cell-cell interactions such as self-orientation and self-assembly, and intervention in the process of extracellular matrix production, the development of tissue engineering techniques without the need for The scaffold (scaffold-free method) is necessary (23, 24). Gabor Forgacs et al. provided a biologically self-assemble method of Chinese Hamster Ovary cells (CHO) for bioprinting and regeneration of small diameter vessels without the need for a scaffold. They printed the Various types of vascular cells including fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, and a mixture of these cells in agarose rods with an adjustable layer diameter in the form of layers, and obtained in small, single-layer and double-layer vessels(23). Jens M. Kelm et al. (2010) developed a similar method based on self-assembling of living cells to create microtissues and then used a designed bioreactortor to assemble the microtissues into the vascular shape and to create pulsatile flow, and the mechanical stimulation on the vessels(24).
  • Conclusion: Since biomaterials used in tissue engineering, including extracellular fluids, cardiovascular tissue, bone marrow, etc. are in nano size, for the better imitation of natural tissue, nanotechnology can be used to prepare nanoparticles, nano-fibers, nano-patterns, controlled release structures, etc
  • Keywords: tissue engineering, cardiovascular diseases, 3D bioprinting, Electrospinning