ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more lives each year than the next five leading causes of death combined (American Heart Association National Center for Health Statistics). Coronary heart disease caused more than 1 in every 5 American deaths in 2000 and required approximately 500,000 coronary artery bypass graft surgeries (CABGs) that year. Bypass grafting is also used in the treatment of aneurysmal disease or trauma. At present, surgeons use autologous tissue and synthetic biomaterials as vascular grafts. Transplantation of autologous tissue has the best outcome in small diameter applications such as CABG because synthetic grafts lack long-term patency for small diameter applications (<6 mm). However, autologous tissue is limited in supply. Recent advances in tissue engineering provide hope that new blood vessel substitutes may one day be fabricated for small diameter applications, such as CABG, where treatment options are often severely limited.
