Reconstitution of A Blood Vessel In Culture

本项目的目的是加深对血管壁生物学的了解，从而为组织工程化血管移植的发展提供指导，用于病变血管的搭桥和替换。这将通过在层流脉冲流系统中重建血管来实现。一个需要回答的关键问题是，细胞-细胞之间的相互作用，即内皮细胞和血管平滑肌细胞之间的相互作用，是否需要创造具有功能完整性的血管，特别是关于其内皮细胞。这个项目的意义在于它代表了体外环境的进一步工程，使其更具生理学意义，并有助于我们理解实现正常运作血管所需的那些因素。无论是对于细胞培养中的血管生物学研究，还是对血管假体的开发，无论是混合移植物还是活的血管等价物，这都是重要的。

The objective of this project is to develop a further understanding of the biology of the vascular wall so as to provide guidance for the development of tissue-engineered vascular grafts for the bypass and replacement of diseased vessels. This will be done by reconstituting a blood vessel in a laminar pulstile flow system. A key question to be answered is whether cell-cell interactions, i.e. between endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, are required to create a blood vessel with functional integrity, particularly in regard to its endothelium. The significance of this project is in its representing a further engineering of the in vitro environment so as to make it more physiologic, and in its contributing to our understanding of those factors necessary to achieve a normally functioning blood vessel. This is important whether it be for vascular biology studies in cell culture or for the development of vascular prostheses, either hybrid grafts or living blood vessel equivalents.