Tissue-engineered Vascular Grafts: Balance of the Four Major Requirements

Tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) have emerged as a new choice for substitution of damaged blood vessels. A passage of a new blood vessel can be regenerated through the continuous secretion of extracellular matrix of cells seeded on the TEVGs, which is not possible using conventional vascular grafts. Although great progress has been made in TEVGs technology with advances in scaffold design and cell seeding, none have been applied in clinic hitherto. This review summarized the progress of TEVGs during the recent 7 years on the basis of four major requirements of TEVGs, namely, matched mechanical properties, blood compatibility, endothelium friendliness and biodegradability, in the hope of promoting the development of TEVGs.