Nanopatterned collagen tubes for vascular tissue engineering

Nanopatterned (330 nm wide channels) type I collagen films were prepared by solvent casting on poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) templates. These films were rolled into tubular constructs and crosslinked. Tubular constructs were incubated under cell culture conditions for 28 days and examined by stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the integrity of the structure. The nanopatterned films were also seeded with human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and examined after immunostaining with fluorescence microscopy and SEM to assess the cell phenotype and alignment on the nanopatterns on the films. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd