Bio-engineered Scaffold with Fibroblasts for Tracheal Regeneration in a Rabbit Model

Some patients with malignant or stenotic inflammatory lesions of the trachea require tracheal resection and reconstruction. Conventionally, it is difficult to reconstruct tracheal defects by either end-to-end anastomosis or autologous tissue implantation.Recently, a few studies on tracheal regeneration using scaffolds have been reported. Collagen-conjugated prothesis have been used for tracheal reconstruction in the clinical application. The problem of this tracheal prosthesis is delay of epithelial regeneration to avoid possible infection.A bio-engineered scaffold consisted of collagen sponge and polypropylene mesh with fibroblasts was developed for accelerating tracheal regeneration.The regenerated tracheas were examined by bronchoscopic findings, histological finding and measurement of average thickness of the regenerated trachea. A bio-engineered scaffold was observed to induce more rapid re-epithelization in the large tracheal defect of a rabbit model. This method appears to be feasible for clinical use after further experiments investigating its efficacy and safety.