Research progress in tissue-engineered tracheal vascularization

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a comprehensive discipline that combines materials science, life sciences, and engineering to repair, and improve and preserve damaged tissues or organs through cell or tissue reconstruction. In recent years, with the rapid development of tissue engineering technology, tissue engineering trachea has gradually become a new approach to tracheal replacement therapy. However, due to the slender and periodic distribution of the blood vessels supplying the trachea, tracheal grafts cannot obtain sufficient blood supply to maintain its demand, making its vascularization problem one of the major obstacles to the development of tissue engineering trachea. In the construction of tissue engineering trachea, the vascularization strategy of seed cells, tracheal scaffold and growth factors have gradually become the focus of research. In this paper, the current researches on tissue engineering tracheal vascularization were reviewed. Key words: Tissue engineering; Vascularization; Tracheal scaffold; Seed cells; Growth factors