Vascular Substitutes
Biomimetic vascular substitutes to treat cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide and is one of the main complications of diabetes. The performance of prostheses and stents used in vascular surgeries could be improved if the grafts became rapidly covered by healthy endothelial cells derived from circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). However, the nature and origin of the EPCs is not well understood. The mechanisms that lead to their adhesion to the vascular wall and their differentiation into functional endothelium are ill-defined. We are dissecting EPC and endothelial cell adhesion mechanisms using surface-conjugated peptides that play a role in the adhesion and differentiation of other circulating cell types. To do so, we have developed a live cell imaging system where we can monitor cell adhesion, cell spreading, cell differentiation and the local effects of the peptides on the adhered cells.
Selected Publications:
Hoesli CA, Garnier A, Juneau PM, Chevallier P, Duchesne C, Laroche G. (2014) A fluorophore-tagged RGD peptide to control endothelial cell adhesion to micropatterned surfaces. Biomaterials. 35(3):879-90. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.09.076.
Elkhodiry MA, Boulanger MD, Bashth O, Tanguay J‐F, Laroche G, Hoesli CA. (2019) Isolating and expanding endothelial progenitor cells from peripheral blood on peptide‐functionalized polystyrene surfaces. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 116: 2598– 2609. doi: 10.1002/bit.27107
Bashth OS, Elkhodiry MA, Laroche G, Hoesli CA. (2020) Surface grafting of Fc-binding peptides as a simple platform to immobilize and identify antibodies that selectively capture circulating endothelial progenitor cells. Biomaterials Science, 8:5465-5475. doi: 10.1039/D0BM00650E