Non-invasive assessment of mechanical property changes with cell growth in a polymer-based vascular graft using ultrasound elasticity imaging

Mechanical strength is a key design factor in engineered vascular grafts for maintaining high burst pressure while preserving compliance of the native vessels. To date, most assessments are made invasively at the end of cell culture and hence such measurements cannot be correlated with cell growth. Therefore, non-invasive monitoring of the changes in mechanical properties as cells grow is essential to optimize the functionality of engineered vascular grafts. In this study, the mechanical property change of a cell-seeded polymer-based scaffold in a bioreactor is monitored using ultrasound (US) elasticity imaging (UEI).