Life Sciences Commons^™

Healing Of Prosthetic Arterial Grafts, G. Pasquinelli, A. Freyrie, P. Preda, T. Curti, M. D'Addato, R. Laschi

Scanning Microscopy

Numerous synthetic biomaterials have been developed as vascular substitutes. In vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies have demonstrated that in animals, selected materials, i.e., Dacron and ePTFE (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) grafts, are successfully incorporated in both the large and the small caliber host arteries through a process which is generally referred to as graft healing. Morphologically, this process consists of a series of complex events including fibrin deposition and degradation, monocyte-macrophage recruitment and flow-oriented cell-layer generation, this last event being the complete endothelialization of the arterial substitute.

In contrast to experimental animals, the flow surface of synthetic vascular grafts remains …