Development of biodegradable polyurethane electrospun small-diameter vascular grafts

F. MONTINI BALLARIN; P.C. CARACCIOLO; P.M. FRONTINI; G.A. ABRAHAM

Viña del Mar

Taller; 3º Taller de Órganos Artificiales, Biomateriales e Ingeniería de Tejidos, OBI 2013; 2013

Soc. Latinoamericana de Biomateriales, Organos Artificiales e Ing. de Tejidos

Small-diameter vascular grafts for cardiovascular applications are still a challenge. The existing synthetic alternatives fail mostly due to a biomechanical mismatch. Natural arteries have a unique structure; composed of three layers, each one with a particular physiological role. The media, formed in its majority of elastin, gives the blood vessel its ability to contract and relax as a response to an external stimulus. The vascular grafts triumph lies in being able to mimic this unique behavior. The most common synthetic biodegradable polymers used in biomedical applications are rigid and lack the ideal elastic behavior for these applications. Biodegradable segmented poly(ester-urethane)s (SPEU) offer a combination of mechanical properties and biocompatibility required for soft-tissue engineering applications. On the other hand, electrospinning is a versatile technique to obtain tailor-made grafts with desirable size and thickness. In this work, we report the development of SPEU-based small-diameter vascular grafts by electrospinning. SPEU was synthesized in our laboratory from aliphatic diisocyanate, aliphatic polyester, and a novel aromatic chain extender. 5 mm internal-diameter tubes were made with a mandrel collector. The preparation of SPEU grafts is a crucial step towards the development of compliant vascular grafts. Since SPEU presents an elastic response similar to the one of elastin, it could be used as the main component in the media layer of a synthetic vascular graft.