Small-caliber artificial blood vessels with inner diameters of smaller than 4 mm have not been put into practical use because of early thrombus formation and graft occlusion. To realize small-caliber artificial blood vessels with anti-thrombus property and long-term patency, one of the promising approaches is endothelialization of the lumen by tissue engineering approaches. Integrin α4β1 on the endothelial cell membrane is known to act as a receptor for Arg-Glu-Asp-Val (REDV) tetra-peptide, and this peptide can be used as a specific ligand to introduce endothelial cell attachment onto the surfaces of polymer scaffold. In this study, biodegradable polymer surface immobilizing REDV peptide were prepared, and the specific attachment of endothelial cells on it was investigated as a preliminary study for tissue-engineered small-caliber blood vessels in a future application. We synthesized copolymer of ε-caprolactone and depsipeptide having reactive carboxylic acid side-chain groups (PGDCL), and REDV peptide was attached to the copolymer to give PGDCL-REDV. The attachment of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were investigated for the blend polymer film prepared by mixing PGDCL and PGDCL-REDV. The obtained blend polymer films exhibited sequence- and cell-specific HUVECs attachment through REDV peptide recognition. This technique should be useful not only to obtain artificial blood vessels which induce endothelialization and but also to provide biodegradable scaffolds with specific ligands immobilized surfaces for tissue regeneration.

内径小于4mm的小口径人造血管由于早期血栓形成和移植物闭塞尚未投入实际应用。为了实现具有抗血栓特性和长期通畅性的小口径人造血管，有前景的方法之一是通过组织工程方法对管腔进行内皮化。已知内皮细胞膜上的整合素 α4β1 可作为 Arg-Glu-Asp-Val (REDV) 四肽的受体，该肽可用作特异性配体，将内皮细胞附着到聚合物支架的表面. 本研究制备了可生物降解的聚合物表面固定化REDV肽，并且研究了内皮细胞在其上的特异性附着，作为未来应用中组织工程化小口径血管的初步研究。我们合成了具有反应性羧酸侧链基团 (PGDCL) 的 ε-己内酯和缩肽的共聚物，并将 REDV 肽连接到共聚物上以得到 PGDCL-REDV。通过混合 PGDCL 和 PGDCL-REDV 制备的共混聚合物膜研究了人脐静脉内皮细胞 (HUVEC) 的附着。获得的共混聚合物薄膜通过 REDV 肽识别表现出序列和细胞特异性 HUVECs 附着。该技术不仅可用于获得诱导内皮化的人造血管，还可用于提供具有特定配体固定表面的可生物降解支架，用于组织再生。