Historical Perspective and Future Direction of Blood Vessel Developments
- 1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
- 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
- 3Department of Anesthesiology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
- Correspondence: laura.niklason{at}yale.edu
Abstract
Over the past 40 years, remarkable advances have been made in our understanding of successful blood vessel regeneration, starting with the failures of early tissue-engineered vascular grafts designed using isolated components or molecules, such as collagen gels. The vascular tissue engineers are today better educated and have steered ongoing research developments toward clinical developments of more complete vascular grafts that replicate the multitude of specialized arterial aspects required for function.
