Small-diameter artery grafts engineered from pluripotent stem cells maintain 100% patency in an allogeneic rhesus macaque model.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40068684.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102002 and PMC identifier 11970380.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Autologous vascular grafts, the only clinically approved option for small-diameter (<6 mm) revascularizations, require invasive harvesting and have limited availability and variable quality. To address these challenges, we develop a 3-mm-diameter artery graft by using arterial endothelial cells (AECs) derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). After establishing technologies for pure AEC generation and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) graft coating, we engineer artery grafts by seeding the inner lumen of ePTFE vascular grafts with either major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatched unmodified-wild-type (MHC-WT) AECs or MHC class I/II double knockout (MHC-DKO) AECs. Their function is evaluated in a rhesus arterial interposition grafting model. MHC-WT grafts maintained 100% patency for 6 months, significantly better than naked and MHC-DKO grafts. Additionally, the endothelium of MHC-WT grafts is repopulated with host cells, supporting long-term patency. Collectively, our study demonstrates that PSC-derived MHC-WT artery grafts provide an unlimited homogenous resource for allogeneic arterial revascularization.
Medical subject headings
- Pluripotent Stem Cells
- Vascular Patency
- Arteries
- Blood Vessel Prosthesis
- Tissue Engineering