Construction of a novel cell-free tracheal scaffold promoting vascularization for repairing tracheal defects

Zhiming Shen; Fei Sun; Yibo Shan; Yi Lu; Cong Wu; Boyou Zhang; Qiang Wu; Lei Yuan; Jianwei Zhu; Qi Wang; Yilun Wang; Wenxuan Chen; Yaojing Zhang; Wenlong Yang; Yiwei Fan; Hongcan Shi

doi:10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100841

Construction of a novel cell-free tracheal scaffold promoting vascularization for repairing tracheal defects

Mater Today Bio. 2023 Oct 20:23:100841. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100841. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Zhiming Shen^{1

2

3}, Fei Sun^{4

1

2

3}, Yibo Shan^{1

2

3}, Yi Lu^{1

2

3}, Cong Wu^{1

2

3}, Boyou Zhang⁵, Qiang Wu⁵, Lei Yuan^{1

2

3}, Jianwei Zhu^{1

2

3}, Qi Wang^{1

2

3}, Yilun Wang^{1

2

3}, Wenxuan Chen^{1

2

3}, Yaojing Zhang^{1

2

3}, Wenlong Yang^{1

2

3}, Yiwei Fan^{1

2

3}, Hongcan Shi^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Institute of Translational Medicine, Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine for Prevention and Treatment of Senile Diseases, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
⁴ Taizhou People's Hospital, The Department of Thoracic Surgery, 225399, China.
⁵ The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410011, China.

Abstract

Functional vascularization is crucial for maintaining the long-term patency of tissue-engineered trachea and repairing defective trachea. Herein, we report the construction and evaluation of a novel cell-free tissue-engineered tracheal scaffold that effectively promotes vascularization of the graft. Our findings demonstrated that exosomes derived from endothelial progenitor cells (EPC-Exos) enhance the proliferation, migration, and tube formation of endothelial cells. Taking advantage of the angiogenic properties of EPC-Exos, we utilized methacrylate gelatin (GelMA) as a carrier for endothelial progenitor cell exosomes and encapsulated them within a 3D-printed polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold to fabricate a composite tracheal scaffold. The results demonstrated the excellent angiogenic potential of the methacrylate gelatin/vascular endothelial progenitor cell exosome/polycaprolactone tracheal scaffold. Furthermore, in vivo reconstruction of tracheal defects revealed the capacity of this composite tracheal stent to remodel vasculature. In conclusion, we have successfully developed a novel tracheal stent composed of methacrylate gelatin/vascular endothelial progenitor exosome/polycaprolactone, which effectively promotes angiogenesis for tracheal repair, thereby offering significant prospects for clinical and translational medicine.

Keywords: Endothelial progenitor cell; Exosomes; Microvascularization; Trachea.