小管徑人工血管支架之研製

Abstract

近年來生醫領域的興起，組織工程快速發展，人工血管支架也在組織工程的研究中扮演重要的一環。目前人工血管支架有許多不同種類的材料與製程，有些甚至已經可以在臨床上實用。但至今為止，發展成熟的人工血管支架僅只於管徑大於4mm之管狀支架，小管徑的人工血管支架其實在體外的人工器官培養、臨床周邊循環系統上的需求實際上也並不亞於大管徑的血管支架，但現今並無有效製備小管徑人工血管支架的方法。尤其是在類似微血管的人工血管支架研究上，目前皆尚未能完全滿足類似微血管的性質需求。

本研究以聚乳酸及聚乙二醇為原料，以電氣紡絲加工技術製備出富含孔隙的小管徑人工血管支架，支架內徑僅0.18-0.20mm，管壁約30-40μm，並對聚乳酸和聚乙二醇在電氣紡絲加工穩定的狀態下所產生的纖維及孔隙大小變化作探討，另外進行親水性的量測以及內皮細胞的養殖，確認在同樣總表面孔隙度下的支架，擁有較小平均孔隙和較佳親水性的支架上會有較佳的細胞生長貼附情形。

The development of bioengineering and tissue engineering in recent years, leads to the evolution of artificial scaffold in many applications. Many different methods of making artificial scaffold are adopted, but none of these process can be utilized for manufacturing a small-diameter artificial scaffold. Especially for the microvascular-like artificial scaffold, almost no study up to this date can satisfy the characteristic of real human microvascular. Microvascular-like small-diameter artificial scaffold which is necessary in research, like the cultivation of artificial organs in vitro and clinical of the peripheral circulatory system, becomes an urgent topic in the field of tissue engineering.

This study proposed to establish a process of manufacturing small-diameter artificial scaffold by electrospinning, using polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) as materials. The small-diameter artificial scaffold has inner diameter of 0.18-0.20mm and wall thickness 30-40μm. Characteristics of the small-diameter artificial scaffold’s fiber diameter, pore size and contact angle were measured. Culturing endothelial cells on these scaffolds were also conducted. The result showed that cells had better attachment and grew situation when scaffold have the same total pore area with small average pore area.