Recently our group demonstrated that acellular tissue engineered vessels (A-TEVs) comprised of small intestinal submucosa (SIS) immobilized with heparin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could be implanted into the arterial system of a pre-clinical ovine animal model, where they endothelialized within one month and remained patent. Here we report that immobilized VEGF captures blood circulating monocytes (MC) with high specificity under a range of shear stresses. Adherent MC differentiate into a mixed endothelial (EC) and macrophage (Mφ) phenotype and further develop into mature EC that align in the direction of flow and produce nitric oxide under high shear stress. In-vivo, newly recruited cells on the vascular lumen express MC markers and at later times they co-express MC and EC-specific proteins and maintain graft patency. This novel finding indicates that the highly prevalent circulating MC contribute directly to the endothelialization of acellular vascular grafts under the right chemical and biomechanical cues.

最近，我们小组证明，由固定有肝素和血管内皮生长因子 (VEGF) 的小肠粘膜下层 (SIS) 组成的脱细胞组织工程血管 (A-TEV) 可以植入临床前绵羊动物模型的动脉系统中，其中它们在一个月内内皮化并保持通畅。在这里，我们报告固定化 VEGF 在一系列剪切应力下以高特异性捕获血液循环单核细胞 (MC)。粘附的 MC 分化为混合的内皮细胞 (EC) 和巨噬细胞 (Mφ) 表型，并进一步发展为成熟的 EC，其沿流动方向排列并在高剪切应力下产生一氧化氮。在体内，血管腔上新招募的细胞表达 MC 标记，随后它们共同表达 MC 和 EC 特异性蛋白质并维持移植物通畅。