Engineering of small diameter tubular compacted fibrin matrices

Abstract Fibrin is widely used in different approaches of tissue engineering. Nevertheless, poor biomechanical strength restricts its use namely in cardiovascular tissue engineering. We have recently developed a novel moulding technique for the generation of highly stable fibrin tubes. The purpose of this study was the application of this method to the generation of small calibre fibrin tubes for the generation of bioartificial vascular grafts with a diameter of 3 mm. Therefore, a fibrinogen preparation was separated from plasma by means of cryoprecipitation and applied to a high-speed rotating casting mould in a low concentration to achieve slow polymerization and thereby uniform distribution of the fibrinogen. Thus, uniformly moulded 10 cm long fibrin tubes with a diameter of 3 mm were generated from 145±22 mg fibrinogen precipitated from 50 mL plasma. Thickness of the wall (522±57 μm) and biomechanical strength (47.4±11.1 kPa) were equable over the whole length of the tubes. Burst strength was 367±49 mm Hg. Thus, the developed technique enables the generation of tubular fibrin segments with a high biomechanical stability and represents a powerful tool for the generation of custom-made bioartificial vascular grafts.