Journal of Cell Science & Therapy
Open Access
ISSN: 2157-7013
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2157-7013
+44 1300 500008
Jana Havlikova, Karel Turek and Lucie Bacakova
Posters: J Cell Sci Ther
Th e commonly used prosthesis materials, such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) known also as Dacron, have been extensively used in large and middle-sized artery reconstruction. However, application of these frequently used materials is limited in small-caliber graft s. Blood vessel graft s with an internal diameter smaller than 6 mm are prone to fail mainly due to their thrombogenicity and poor haemodynamics. One of the possible solutions of these problems may be reconstruction of the tunica intima and media on the synthetic graft s. For this purpose, special PET foils were prepared. Twelve-μm thick foil was irradiated by krypton ions, ultraviolet light and etched by 1M sodium hydroxide to obtain pores of defi ned diameter (from 0,2 μm to 2 μm) and density (4x10 6 cm -2 ). Th is study investigated the infl uence of pore size and topography of the PET surface on the growth and viability of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and endothelial cells. It was confi rmed that surface micropores modulate the adhesion, proliferation and viability of vascular cells. It seems that endothelial cells prefer pores around 1 μm. VSMC were usually without preference of a specifi c pore size, only on scaff olds with 2 μm large pores, decreased proliferation and viability was observed. According to these results, PET foils with 1 μm large pores were chosen for further experiments, in which these porous PET membranes could serve as synthetic analogues of internal elastic lamina separating vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells in a newly constructed bioartifi cial vascular wall.
Jana Havlikova has completed her MD studies at The Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Prague, Czech Republic in 2009. She is a second year PhD student in the Department of Growth and Differentiation of Cell Populations, Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.