TISSUE ENGINEERED NANOFIBER POLY (VINYL ALCOHOL) MESH FOR THE TREATMENT OF ABDOMINAL WALL HERNIA

Intraperitoneal positioning of the non-degradable surgical mesh may cause adhesion formation. In this work 3D absorbable poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) scaffold was used for tissue engineered hernia replacement which was prepared by reactive electrospinning. To determine the biocompatibility the cell affinity were studied through the adherence and toxicity tests on Human lung epithelial (A549) cell line. In vivo studies were performed on Wistar rats (n=45, 200-250 g) to evaluate the implant integration and biological respons. Abdominal wall defect was performed on the right side of the abdomen, than was covered on-lay with the PVA mesh. Each mesh was fixed by simple running suture using 4/0 polypropylene suture material. Adhesion formations were documented and measured by our modified Diamond score. Macroscopical and histological responses were performed from the samples. According to the histological examinations we found that all of the scaffolds were integrated to the host tissue and were kept their structures until the end of the long experiments. Significantly more adhesion formations were attached to the non-absorbable polypropylene suture line (n=19) than we could find on the surface of the PVA mesh (n=5). In this preliminary study demonstrated that the PVA nanofiber mesh is biocompatible and could be a promising scaffold for tissue applications