Artificial membranes tuning for lymphatic wall repair

Abstract : Chylothorax is an uncommon form of pleural effusion, which generally occurs after cardiac surgery and almost any surgical operation in the chest. The aim of this project is to develop a bioresorbable vascular patch for lymphatic wall repair [1]. Here, we project to develop new materials (i.e. membranes) having two different levels of porosity [2]. First short tests made with Polycaprolactone (PCL) membranes and PCL was blended with different biocompatible, bioresorbable membranes. It shows that human dermal lymphatic endothelial (HDLEC) cells can bind and spread on certain membrane and not on others suggesting that the chemical structure and the morphology of the membranes is important.