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Preparation of double-raschel knitted silk vascular grafts and evaluation of short-term function in a rat abdominal aorta

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Abstract

Silk fibroin fiber has a long history of use in sutures because of its high strength and toughness. In the work reported in this paper, small-diameter vascular grafts 1.5 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length were prepared by coating a double-raschel knitted silk fiber graft with silk fibroin aqueous solution containing poly(ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether) as a cross-linking agent. The most important character of silk fibroin graft is remodeling, which is never observed for polyester fiber or expanded polytetrafluoroethylene grafts. The double-raschel knitted silk fiber graft with coating has sufficient physical strength and protects the ladder from the end in the implantation process. The coating also gives protection against leakage of blood from the graft, and elasticity to the graft. Eight weeks after implantation of the grafts in rat abdominal aorta, early formation of thrombosis was avoided.

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Acknowledgments

TA acknowledges support from Grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (Agri-Health Translational Research Project), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Japan (18105007), and Promotion of Basic Research Activities for Innovative Biosciences, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan

    Takahito Yagi, Michiko Sato, Yasumoto Nakazawa & Tetsuo Asakura

  2. Nature and Science Museum, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Nakacho, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan

    Yasumoto Nakazawa

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan

    Kimie Tanaka

  4. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15, Kuramotocho, Tokushima, Tokushima, 770-8503, Japan

    Masataka Sata

  5. Fukui Warp Knitting Co., Ltd, 3-519-3 Nishikaihatsu, Fukui, Fukui, 910-8512, Japan

    Kenji Itoh & Yoshihide Takagi

Authors
  1. Takahito Yagi
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  2. Michiko Sato
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  3. Yasumoto Nakazawa
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  4. Kimie Tanaka
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  5. Masataka Sata
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  6. Kenji Itoh
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  7. Yoshihide Takagi
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  8. Tetsuo Asakura
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Correspondence to Tetsuo Asakura.

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Yagi, T., Sato, M., Nakazawa, Y. et al. Preparation of double-raschel knitted silk vascular grafts and evaluation of short-term function in a rat abdominal aorta. J Artif Organs 14, 89–99 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10047-011-0554-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10047-011-0554-z

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