Feasibility of In-body Tissue Architecture (IBTA) in Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery: Development of Regenerative Autologous Tissues with Growth Potential

Abstract

In-body tissue architecture (IBTA), based on an encapsulation reaction, can produce autologous implantable tissues with desired shape, thickness, and robustness by simply embedding designed molds into subcutaneous pouches for 2 months. Tubular vascular grafts (biotubes), sheet-like patches (biosheets), or valved conduits (biovalves) have been developed for cardiovascular implants. Upon implantation, vascular, myocardial, or valvular tissues were regenerated within several months with high reliability. IBTA first demonstrated evidence of growth potential of biotubes when implanted using a beagle juvenile model. In this review article, we provide an overview of our recent IBTA-based work for pediatric cardiovascular surgery.