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Tissue-engineered aneurysm models for in vitro assessment of neurovascular devices

  • Interventional Neuroradiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Preclinical testing of neurovascular devices is crucial for successful device design and is commonly performed using in vivo organisms such as the rabbit elastase-induced aneurysm model; however, simple in vitro models may help further refine this testing paradigm. The purpose of the current work was to evaluate, and further develop, tissue-engineered blood vessel mimics (BVMs) as simple, early-stage models to assess neurovascular devices in vitro prior to animal or clinical use.

Methods

The first part of this work used standard straight-vessel BVMs to evaluate flow diverters at 1, 3, and 5 days post-deployment. The second part developed custom aneurysm-shaped scaffolds to create aneurysm BVMs. Aneurysm scaffolds were characterized based on overall dimensions and microstructural features and then used for cell deposition and vessel cultivation.

Results

It was feasible to deploy flow diverters within standard BVMs and cellular linings could withstand and respond to implanted devices, with increasing cell coverage over time. This provided the motivation and foundation for the second phase of work, where methods were successfully developed to create saccular, fusiform, and blister aneurysm scaffolds using a wax molding process. Results demonstrated appropriate fiber morphology within different aneurysm shapes, consistent cell deposition, and successful cultivation of aneurysm BVMs.

Conclusion

It is feasible to use tissue-engineered BVMs for assessing cellular responses to flow diverters, and to create custom aneurysm BVMs. This supports future use of these models for simple, early-stage in vitro testing of flow diverters and other neurovascular devices.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Medtronic Neurovascular and Marc Dawson for providing the flow diverters.

Funding

No funding was received for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA

    Tiffany W. Shen, Kristen Temnyk, Scott Herting & Kristen O’Halloran Cardinal

  2. Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93407, USA

    Brandon Puccini

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  1. Tiffany W. Shen
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  5. Kristen O’Halloran Cardinal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristen O’Halloran Cardinal.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. KOC has received funding from Medtronic Neurovascular and Stryker Neurovascular.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Shen, T.W., Puccini, B., Temnyk, K. et al. Tissue-engineered aneurysm models for in vitro assessment of neurovascular devices. Neuroradiology 61, 723–732 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-019-02197-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-019-02197-x

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