Fabrication and Characterization of dECM/PVA/GelMA Tissue-Engineered Small-Diameter Blood Vessels

Vascular disease is a disease with high lethality, and the development of small-diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels (less than 6 mm in diameter) capable of replacing autologous damaged blood vessels is of great importance. In this study, we first prepared decellularized vascular matrix (dECM), a material that removes immunogenicity and retains active ingredients required for cell growth. Next, methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) was prepared by grafting methacrylic anhydride on gelatin according to a previous method, and a pre-gel solution was prepared by blending it with the polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and dECM. An isometric combination mold was designed by 3D modeling software, and the pregel solution was infused into the mold, and double cross-linked hydrogel tubes were prepared after repeated freeze-thaw and UV cross-linking and demolding. The results showed that dECM removed most of the DNA but retained a certain amount of active ingredients, such as collagen and glycosaminoglycans. The porous structure of the hydrogels was suitable for cell growth and had suitable mechanical properties. Cellular experiments also demonstrated that the dECM/PVA/GelMA hydrogels had good cytocompatibility and adhesion.