Preparation of decellularized and crosslinked artery patch for vascular tissue-engineering application

There is an urgent clinical need of tissue-engineering (TE) vascular grafts, so this study was for developing a fast and simple way of producing TE vascular scaffold. The TE vascular scaffold was prepared with pepsin, DNase and RNase enzymatic decellularization and crosslinked with 0.1, 1, 5% glutaraldehyde (GA), respectively. The samples were underwent analyses of burst pressure; suture strength; cytotoxicity; enzymatic degradation in vitro; degradation in vivo; rehydration; biocompatibilities detected with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), scan electron microscope, immunohistochemistry both in vivo and in vitro; macrophage infiltration and calcification using Von Kossa staining. After being decellularized the scaffold had a complete removal of cellular components, an intact collagen structure. The burst pressure and suture strength were similar to native artery. 0.1% GA crosslinked scaffold showed less cytotoxicity than 1 and 5% GA groups (P?