Agradecimentos: The authors acknowledge the support to this research by the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP, Brazil – Grants #2013/26534-1 and #2017/01858-0), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional...

Agradecimentos: The authors acknowledge the support to this research by the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP, Brazil – Grants #2013/26534-1 and #2017/01858-0), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq, Brazil – Grants #307139/2015-8 and #307829/2018-9), Emerging Leaders in America Program (ELAP, Canada) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada – Discovery Program (NSERC, Canada). This study was financed in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Educational Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES, Brazil – Finance Code 001). We also thank Dimitria Camasão, Caroline Loy, Daniele Pezzoli and Francesco Copes (Université Laval, Canada) and Rachael Simon-Walker (Colorado State University, USA) for providing insight and expertise that greatly assisted this research

Coronary artery and peripheral vascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and often require surgical intervention to replace damaged blood vessels, including the use of vascular patches in endarterectomy procedures. Tissue engineering approaches can be used to...

Coronary artery and peripheral vascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and often require surgical intervention to replace damaged blood vessels, including the use of vascular patches in endarterectomy procedures. Tissue engineering approaches can be used to obtain biocompatible and biodegradable materials directed to this application. In this work, dense or porous scaffolds constituted of chitosan (Ch) complexed with alginate (A) or pectin (P) were fabricated and characterized considering their application as tissue-engineered vascular patches. Scaffolds fabricated with alginate presented higher culture medium uptake capacity (up to 17 g/g) than materials produced with pectin. A degradation study of the patches in the presence of lysozyme showed longer-term stability for Ch-P-based scaffolds. Pectin-containing matrices presented higher elastic modulus (around 280 kPa) and ability to withstand larger deformations. Moreover, these materials demonstrated better performance when tested for hemocompatibility, with lower levels of platelet adhesion and activation. Human smooth muscle cells (HSMC) adhered, spread and proliferated better on matrices produced with pectin, probably as a consequence of cell response to higher stiffness of this material. Thus, the outcomes of this study demonstrate that Ch-P-based scaffolds present superior characteristics for the application as vascular patches. Despite polysaccharides are yet underrated in this field, this work shows that biocompatible tridimensional structures based on these polymers present high potential to be applied for the reconstruction and regeneration of vascular tissues

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ

307139/2015-8; 307829/2018-9

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP

2013/26534-1; 2017/01858-0

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