Graduate Student Seminar Series – Kate MacQuarrie

Graduate Student Seminar Series
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Location: WB116
Presentation Title: Endothelization and perfusion of a tubular D-PHI/PCNU vascular construct using patient-derived HAMVECs supported by VSMCs and monocytes
Abstract:
Coronary and peripheral artery disease are two forms of cardiovascular disease that cause occlusion in small-diameter arteries. The treatment of these conditions has been a challenge, as endovascular procedures do not provide long-term revascularization, and synthetic grafts that remain patent at larger diameters quickly stenose at diameters under 6 mm. While autologous grafts using the internal mammary artery or the saphenous vein are the current gold standard, these vessels have limited availability, and their quality may be compromised in patients with ischemic conditions. When synthetic grafts are used at small diameters, the primary modes of failure are thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia, often due to the lack of a luminal endothelium, and a mismatch in mechanical properties between the graft and the native vasculature.
The objective of my work is to generate a tissue-engineered vascular graft composed of a novel electrospun polyurethane/polycarbonate scaffold, co-cultured with endothelial cells and stromal cells isolated from patients’ adipose tissue. Briefly, the four objectives of my project include: (1) evaluating the utility of indirectly co-culturing stromal and endothelial cells across the electrospun membrane, (2) determining which types of support cells are optimal for the production of a biomimetic vascular graft (differentiated or undifferentiated stromal cells), (3) endothelializing the support cell-seeded graft in a perfusion bioreactor, then treating the construct with physiological levels of shear stress, and (4) implanting the endothelialized graft in a small animal model for preliminary in vivo studies.
Supervisor Name: Paul Santerre
Year of Study: 2
Program of Study: MASc
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