Preparation of double-raschel knitted silk vascular grafts and evaluation of short-term function in a rat abdominal aorta.

Silk fibroin fiber has a long history of use in sutures because of its high strength and toughness. In the work reported in this paper, small-diameter vascular grafts 1.5 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length were prepared by coating a double-raschel knitted silk fiber graft with silk fibroin aqueous solution containing poly(ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether) as a cross-linking agent. The most important character of silk fibroin graft is remodeling, which is never observed for polyester fiber or expanded polytetrafluoroethylene grafts. The double-raschel knitted silk fiber graft with coating has sufficient physical strength and protects the ladder from the end in the implantation process. The coating also gives protection against leakage of blood from the graft, and elasticity to the graft. Eight weeks after implantation of the grafts in rat abdominal aorta, early formation of thrombosis was avoided.