New evidence and new hope concerning endothelial seeding of vascular grafts

Endothelial cell (EC) seeding of prosthetic bypass grafts has been promoted as a method of improving graft patency. However, an efficient and reliable method of seeding vascular prostheses with ECs is lacking due to inefficient harvesting of ECs and poor attachment and proliferation of cells on the prosthetic surfaces. To investigate the effect of a commonly used prosthetic surface on EC attachment and proliferation, we measured the attachment and proliferation of ECs on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) grafts uncoated or coated with gelatin, laminin, fibronectin, collagen type I and/or III, or RGD (arginine-glycine-aspartate)-containing peptide. EC attachment and proliferation were both significantly decreased on the untreated PTFE graft surface. Conversely, coating of PTFE with fibronectin, RGD, laminin, or gelatin significantly (p less than 0.05) improved the attachment of ECs, with the most striking increases occurring with laminin and gelatin. Similarly, all matrix components in this study improved EC proliferation compared with untreated PTFE, with RGD and gelatin producing the most significant improvement. PTFE adversely effects EC attachment and proliferation. These properties can be improved by treating PTFE graft surfaces with extracellular matrix components in relatively low concentrations. Future investigations are needed to determine whether there are combinations and concentrations of matrix components that will optimize these cellular functions on vascular prostheses.