Perfusable branching microvessel bed for vascularization of engineered tissues

摘要

Tissue engineering offers a possible alternative treatment option for tissue and organ replacement, but challenges related to vascularization in vitro and in vivo remain. Functional vascu-lature is required to grow tissues thicker than 0.02 cm because of diffusional limitations in oxygen supply (1). Here, we devised a method to engineer a prototype vascular network consisting of two branching vessels and a microvascular bed suitable for rapid vascularization of engineered tissues in vitro.