Tissue Engineering of in vivo vascularized soft tissue free flaps in a large animal model

Status:

ongoing

Aims:

The aim of the study is an in vivo creation of axially vascularized and transplantable soft tissue flaps in a porcine model which enable stable coverage of calvarial defects with exposed bone and are comparable to traditional autologous free flaps. An in vivo creation of soft tissue flaps would avoid large scale tissue harvest from healthy donor sites which may result in functional impairments and prolonged rehabilitation.

Activities/Methods:

• Microsurgical AV Loop placements in a porcine model
• Free microsurgical transplantation of the matured flaps for coverage of full thickness calvarial defects
• 4D-computed tomography for analysis of AV loop perfusion
• histomorphometric analysis of angiogenesis within matured flaps
• Analysis of micro-RNA and gene expression profiles within the AV loop vessels

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