2022, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (28): 4569-4574

Research progress of gene therapy for vascularization of tissue engineering

Li Guangzhao, Chen Rui, Jia Honglin, Ren Liling   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The rapid formation of functional vascular system in large-scale engineered graft is the basic prerequisite for its successful survival in the host. The vascularization of tissue engineering by genetic engineering technology has the advantages of good therapeutic effect, low cost and high safety. It is of great significance to carry out the research on gene therapy for vascularization of tissue engineering for long-term effective tissue repair.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the current research status and main problems of seed cells, target genes and gene vectors of gene therapy in tissue engineering vascularization so as to further explore the application prospect of gene therapy in tissue engineering vascularization.
METHODS: The literature retrieval was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI with the key words of “tissue engineering; vascularization; gene therapy; seed cells; target genes; vectors” in Chinese and English, and 61 articles closely related to this study were selected for the review.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Mesenchymal stem cells, vascular endothelial cells and endothelial progenitor cells are the most potential seed cells for vascularization of tissue engineering using gene therapy. They not only have good vascular induction, but also benefit the introduction of many virus and non-viral vectors and the expression of vascularization target genes. Vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-1, basic fibroblast growth factor, bone morphogenetic protein-2, hypoxia inducible factor-1 α and other vascularization target genes are mainly used to construct efficient and stable vascular network in engineering grafts by means of combination of double/multiple gene, coupling of osteogenesis and angiogenesis, and regulation of upstream gene. Since different viral and non-viral vectors have their own advantages and disadvantages, suitable vectors should be selected according to the efficiency of gene transfection, biological safety, and cost in application. At present, although great progress has been made in the application of gene therapy in tissue engineering vascularization, there are still many key technologies to be broken through for clinical application, such as how to improve the targeted release of target growth factors and reduce the safety risk, which is also the research direction and hot spot of tissue engineering vascularization based on gene therapy in the future.
Key words: tissue engineering, vascularization, gene therapy, seed cells, target genes, vectors, review