Journal
ANNALS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Volume 29, Issue 11, Pages 923-934Publisher
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING SOC AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1114/1.1415522
Keywords
tissue engineering; matrix metalloproteinases; mechanical properties; cyclic strain; vascular remodeling
Categories
Funding
- NIGMS NIH HHS [GM08433] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Tissue engineering offers the opportunity to develop vascular substitutes that mimic the responsive nature of native arteries. A good blood vessel substitute should be able to remodel its matrix in response to mechanical stimulation, as imposed by the hemodynamic environment. We have developed a novel method of studying the influence of mechanical strain on the remodeling of cell-seeded collagen gel blood vessel analogs. We assessed the remodeling capacity by examining the effect of mechanical conditioning upon the expression of enzymes which remodel the extracellular matrix, called matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and upon the mechanical properties of the constructs. We found that subjecting collagen constructs to a 10% cyclic radial distention, over a course of 4 days, resulted in an overall increase in the production of MMP-2. Cyclic mechanical strain also stimulated enzymatic activation of latent MMP-2. We found that cyclic strain also significantly increased the mechanical strength and material modulus, as indicated by an increase in circumferential tensile properties of the constructs. These observations suggested that MMP-2-dependent remodeling affects the material properties of vascular tissue analogs. To further investigate this possible connection we examined the effects of dynamic conditioning in the presence of two nonspecific inhibitors of MMP activity. Interestingly, we found that nonspecific inhibition of MMP ablated the benefits of mechanical conditioning upon mechanical properties. Our observations suggest that a better understanding of the complex relation between mechanical stimulation and construct remodeling is key for the proper design of tissue-engineered blood vessel substitutes. (C) 2001 Biomedical Engineering Society.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available