Umbilical Cord Blood Derived Endothelial Progenitor Cells for Tissue Engineering of Vascular Grafts Dörthe Schmidt, MD, Christian Breymann, MD, Alberto Weber, MD, Christina I. Guenter, MD, Stefan Neuenschwander, PhD, Gregor Zund, MD, Marko Turina, MD, Simon P. Hoerstrup, MD The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Volume 78, Issue 6, Pages 2094-2098 (December 2004) DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.06.052 Copyright © 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 1 Example of biodegradable vascular scaffolds (biodegradable polyurethane foam, porosity > 95%, 0.5 cm diameter, 2.5 cm length). The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2004 78, 2094-2098DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.06.052) Copyright © 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 2 (a) Differentiated native endothelial progenitor cells after 3 weeks. (b) Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated the uptake of acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL) (magnification = ×50). (c) von Willebrand factor (vWF) confirms the endothelial phenotype (magnification = ×100). The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2004 78, 2094-2098DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.06.052) Copyright © 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 3 Endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) formation on the scaffolds: histology and immunohistochemistry illustrate cell-to-polyurethane foam attachment under static conditions (24 hours after seeding: (a) unseeded scaffold, (b) seeded scaffold, (c) hematoxylin & eosin [HE] staining) and with stable endothelial phenotype of attached EPCs under dynamic conditions on polyurethane foam (48 hours after seeding: (d) cluster of differentiation 31 [CD31], (e) von Willebrand factor [vWF], (f) endothelial nitric oxide synthase [eNOS]) and polyglycolic-acid (PGA) meshes (12 days after seeding: (g) CD31, (h) vWF, (i) HE, magnification = ×20). The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2004 78, 2094-2098DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.06.052) Copyright © 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions
Fig 4 Cell-to-polymer attachment (polyglycolic-acid [PGA] meshes) in the scanning electron microscope (measurement = 70 μm): (a) differentiated endothelial progenitor cell, (b) fiber of polyglycolic-acid/poly(4-hydroxybutric acid) (PGA/P4HB) scaffold. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2004 78, 2094-2098DOI: (10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.06.052) Copyright © 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions