Human umbilical cord cells: a new cell source for cardiovascular tissue engineering. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery

cardiovascular constructs with the potential to grow, repair, and remodel represents a promising new concept for cardiac surgery, especially for pediatric patients. Currently, vascular myofibroblast cells (VC) represent an established cell source for cardiovascular tissue engi-neering. Cell isolation requires the invasive harvesting of venous or arterial vessel segments before scaffold seed-ing, a technique that may not be preferable, particularly in pediatric patients. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using umbilical cord cells (UCC) as an alternative autologous cell source for cardiovascular tis-sue engineering. Methods. Human UCC were isolated from umbilical cord segments and expanded in culture. The cells were sequentially seeded on bioabsorbable copolymer patche