Organiser's Note: This talk was cancelled by the presenter, and therefore no video is available.

The aim of the present study has been the application of hyaluronan based sheets that could perform an in vivo vascular tissue repair. 12 Male Wistar rats weighing 250-350g were used. Sheets of hyaluronan (Jaloskin ®) were implanted in the abdominal aorta were a previously section of 1 x 5 mm was performed. Histology (ematoxillin and eosin and Weighert staining) and immunohistochemistry (von Willebrand factor and type VI collagene) were used to evaluate the results at 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 weeks.

At day 7, new tissue was observed in the graft coming from both the proximal and distal ends of the aorta. The luminal surface of the regenerating tissue was covered by endothelial cells starting from the second week. At day 21, regenerating tissue joined at the centre of the vessel. The new-vessel wall was formed by elastic and collagen fibres starting from the 8th week. All animals survived the observation period and there were no signs of stenoses or aneurysms.

In the end we can conclude that the hyaluronan-based graft allowed complete regeneration of a newly formed vascular wall in which all the cellular and extracellular components are present and organized in a well defined architecture similar to native artery and then, that the this biomaterial creates the ideal environment for the delicate regeneration process during the critical initial phases, yet its biodegradability allowed for complete degradation of the construct four months after implantation.