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(Circulation Research. 2002;90:e71.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letter to the Editor

Guided Tissue Regeneration of Vascular Grafts in the Peritoneal Cavity

S. Cebotari

Leibniz Institute for Biotechnology and, Artificial Organs (LEBAO), Hannover, Germany, serjciub@yahoo.com

T. Walles

Division of Thoracic and, Cardiovascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

S. Sorrentino

LEBAO, Hannover, Germany

A. Haverich

Division of Thoracic and, Cardiovascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

H. Mertsching

LEBAO, Hannover, Germany

To the Editor:

Tissue engineering represents an upcoming alternative source for vascular substitutes to create viable and biologically active grafts. Two different concepts are followed: grafts are either reseeded in vitro before implantation (tissue engineering)¹ or the scaffolds are implanted as acellular matrices for intrinsic reseeding in vivo (guided tissue regeneration).^2,3 The scaffold matrices are fashioned from natural materials or synthetic polymers.^4,5 Despite considerable clinical research, no biological or synthetic grafts have been produced so far as an ideal substitute for a small-diameter artery.^5,6

Recently, our group focused research on the creation of bioartificial blood vessel grafts. Therefore, we read with interest the study in Circulation Research by Campbell et al⁷ on the creation of an "artificial blood conduit . . . from the cells of the host for autologous transplantation" (page 1173) in the peritoneal cavity: Silastic tubes implanted into the peritoneal cavity of rat and rabbit became completely encased into granulation tissue by 2 weeks. Histology revealed this myofibroblast capsule to be covered with a single layer of mesothelium, which formed the inner surface of the "designer" (page 1174) artery after the silastic tubing was removed and the capsule was everted. Implantation into the hosts showed impressive patency rates after 4 months of follow-up. Furthermore, the grafts showed 10% to 20% contractility of host aortas in organ bath experiments. The authors hypothesize that after implantation the " mesothelium is sloughed off the grafts and replaced by local endothelium" (page 1177) and stated that the "source of the lining cells was not . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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