Biodegradation and biocompatibility of a degradable chitosan vascular prosthesis.

An instrument made by ourselves was used to fabricate biodegradable chitosan-heparin artificial vascular prosthesis with small internal diameter (2 mm) and different crosslinking degree from biodegradable chitosan, chitosan derivates and heparin. In vivo and in vitro degradation studies, inflammatory analysis and electron microscope scanning of this artificial vascular prosthesis were performed. It was observed that 50% of the prosthesis decomposed in vivo and was replaced by natural tissues. The degradation process of the chitosan-heparin artificial vascular prosthesis of small diameter could be controlled by changing the crosslinking degree. This kind of artificial vascular prosthesis shows good biocompatibility that can be controllability designed to achieve desirable in vascular replacement application.