Use of polycaprolactone grafts for small-diameter blood vessels

Current trends are toward actively developing approaches of tissue engineering, aimed at creating vascular grafts of small diameter. This is due to the existing in cardiovascular surgery demand for prostheses to be used in coronary artery bypass grafting. The present work was undertaken in order to assess possibilities of using smalldiameter vascular grafts made of biodegradable polymer polycaprolactone by means of electrospinning. The authors studied physico-mechanical properties and structure of polycaprolactone grafts, as well as their thromboresistance and patency after implantation into the vascular bed of rats. The obtained results demonstrated optimal physicomechanical properties of the vascular grafts, their biocompatibility, endothelialisation of the internal surface, and infiltration of the graft's wall by cells with the formation of new tissue, accompanied and followed by the development of an extensive intimal layer in the zones of the anastomoses. Hence, the study showed possibilities of using polycaprolactone grafts as vascular prostheses, however requiring their further modification which would promote and contribute to a decrease in hyperplasia of connective tissue in the graft's lumen.