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Updated: Jun 16, 2026
Microfluidic Bioprinting for Engineering Vascularized Tissues and Organoids
Published on: August 11, 2017
Towards organ printing: engineering an intra-organ branched vascular tree
Richard P Visconti1, Vladimir Kasyanov, Carmine Gentile
1Medical University of South Carolina, Bioprinting Research Center, Department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology, 173 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC 29425, USA.
Importance Of The Field:
Effective vascularization of thick three-dimensional engineered tissue constructs is a problem in tissue engineering. As in native organs, a tissue-engineered intra-organ vascular tree must be comprised of a network of hierarchically branched vascular segments. Despite this requirement, current tissue-engineering efforts are still focused predominantly on engineering either large-diameter macrovessels or microvascular networks.
Areas Covered In This Review:
We present the emerging concept of organ printing or robotic additive biofabrication of an intra-organ branched vascular tree, based on the ability of vascular tissue spheroids to undergo self-assembly.
What The Reader Will Gain:
The feasibility and challenges of this robotic biofabrication approach to intra-organ vascularization for tissue engineering based on organ-printing technology using self-assembling vascular tissue spheroids including clinically relevantly vascular cell sources are analyzed.
Take Home Message:
It is not possible to engineer 3D thick tissue or organ constructs without effective vascularization. An effective intra-organ vascular system cannot be built by the simple connection of large-diameter vessels and microvessels. Successful engineering of functional human organs suitable for surgical implantation will require concomitant engineering of a 'built in' intra-organ branched vascular system. Organ printing enables biofabrication of human organ constructs with a 'built in' intra-organ branched vascular tree.
