Cationic lipid-mediated transfection of bovine aortic endothelial cells inhibits their attachment

The need for a small-diameter vascular graft for coronary artery and peripheral vascular replacement is great and is projected to increase as the population ages. Synthetic small-diameter vascular grafts fail because of acute thrombosis or chronic intimal hyperplasia leading to restenosis. Endothelial cell seeding has been attempted with limited success in the femoral artery by Zilla and others. However, patency rates have not increased sufficiently to justify large clinical trials. Genetic engineering of endothelial cells before seeding has been proposed to encourage endothelial cell phenotypes that would predispose the graft to patency. In this study, we investigate the effect cationic lipid-mediated transfection of endothelial cells with respect to their attachment to a potential graft material, Fluoropassiv (Vascutek). Liposomal transfection was optimized for maximum gene expression. We report that transfection decreases the ability of bovine aortic endothelial cells to attach by approximately 100% as compared with nontransfected control over 18 h. Further, when placed under physiologic shear conditions, this difference is sustained. The effects of gene transfer on endothelial cell adhesion must be included as an important optimization criterion along with gene expression for engineered endothelial cell-seeding applications.