Personalized tissue-engineered veins – long term safety, functionality and cellular transcriptome analysis in large animals

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a promising methodology to produce advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). We have developed personalized tissue engineered veins (P-TEV) as an alternative to autologous or synthetic vascular grafts utilized in reconstructive vein surgery. Our hypothesis is that individualization through reconditioning of a decellularized allogenic graft with autologous blood will prime the tissue for efficient recellularization, protect the graft from thrombosis, and decrease the risk of rejection. In this study, P-TEVs were transplanted to vena cava in pig, and the analysis of three veins after six months, six veins after 12 months and one vein after 14 months showed that all P-TEVs were fully patent, and the tissue was well recellularized and revascularized. To confirm that the ATMP product had the expected characteristics one year after transplantation, gene expression profiling of cells from P-TEV and native vena cava were analyzed and compared by qPCR and sequencing. The qPCR and bioinformatics analysis confirmed that the cells from the P-TEV were highly similar to the native cells, and we therefore conclude that P-TEV is functional and safe in large animals and have high potential for use as a clinical transplant graft.