Tissue engineering of aorta
Success in reconstructive vascular surgery is inseparably linked with the developments of polymer chemistry. Biological inertness, durability, eases of sterilization and modeling of synthetic vascular grafts contributed to their widespread use as in aortic and great vessels. However, analysis of the accumulated clinical experience in using of synthetic grafts showed that fascination with them was gradually replaced by cautious attitude, and sometimes by refusing. It is because of in the presence of well-known advantages, synthetic grafts are prone to infection and the development of thrombosis. In this regard, it takes place not only searching of anticoagulant and antibiotic therapy schemes, but also of the ways to create such grafts which eliminates the risk of thrombus formation and the development of infectious complications. Today one of such ways include tissue engineering, which allows using principles and methods of engineering and biology come close to obtaining bioartificial tissues and organs. Bioartificial or tissue-engineering vascular grafts, created on the basis of natural decellularized allogeneic or xenogeneic vascular matrix and populated with patient cells, so personalized, are thought to be biocompatible, athrombogenic, and deprived of any drawbacks of synthetic grafts. Being biocompatible products, they will be able to grow and will be suitable not only for adults but also for children with cardiovascular defects. However, on the way of creation of tissue-engineering vascular grafts there remain a number of questions related to the lack of optimal protocol for decellularization and for cellular composition for its repopulation.