Developing scaffolds for tissue engineering small diameter blood vessels

The issue related to the development of scaffolds for tissue-engineered small-diameter blood vessels, is presented. Presently, tubes are being prepared by freeze drying a suspension of type I insoluble collagen from bovine Achilles tendon in a tubular mould. It is estimated that after once cultured on the scaffolds, smooth muscle cells (SMC) would grow and produce extracellular matrix components (ECM), and develop new blood vessels. Different crosslinking methods as well as varius crosslinked samples were studied from a physical and chemical point of view to ascertain the situation.