Engineering blood vessels by gene and cell therapy

Abstract

Cardiovascular-related syndromes are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Arterial narrowing and blockage due to atherosclerosis cause reduced blood flow to the brain, heart and legs. Bypass surgery to improve blood flow to the heart and legs in these patients is performed in hundreds of thousands of patients every year. Autologous grafts, such as the internal thoracic artery and saphenous vein, are used in most patients, but in a significant number of patients such grafts are not available and synthetic grafts are used. Synthetic grafts have higher failure rates than autologous grafts due to thrombosis and scar formation within graft lumen. Cell and gene therapy combined with tissue engineering hold a great promise to provide grafts that will be biocompatible and durable. This review describes the field of vascular grafts in the context of tissue engineering using cell and gene therapies.

Keywords::

• bypass surgery
• cell therapy
• gene therapy
• tissue engineering
• vascular graft

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the MGVS Ltd team members that work on the tissue engineering project and to L Shoham for her invaluable help in preparing this review.

Conflict of interest disclosureThe following authors are current or former employees of MultiGene Vascular Systems Ltd (MGVS Ltd) Haifa: G Zarbiv, M Preis, Y Ben-Yosef and MY Flugelman.