Engineering a Blood Vessel Network Module for Body-on-a-Chip Applications.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Tissue Engineering
• Vascular Biology

Background:

• The blood circulatory system is vital for organ function, necessitating engineered blood vessels for research.
• Creating functional, perfusable blood vessels in vitro presents challenges, particularly in connecting macroscale and microscale components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a generalizable method for engineering long, perfusable blood vessel networks in vitro.
• To overcome limitations in current in vitro blood vessel engineering techniques.

Main Methods:

• Co-culturing fibroblasts with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to form millimeter-scale vessels.
• Utilizing a novel O-ring shaped guide for culturing paracrine factor-secreting fibroblasts, allowing flexible and decoupled co-culture.
• Integrating engineered vessels into a device for external connection and perfusion.

Main Results:

• Successfully engineered perfusable blood vessels up to 2 mm in length with over 90% reproducibility.
• Demonstrated a flexible co-culture system that decouples the effects of secreted factors.
• Established a method for creating robust, in vitro engineered vascular networks.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides a reproducible approach to engineer long, perfusable blood vessels in vitro.
• This technique offers a modular solution for connecting organ components in future body-on-a-chip applications.
• The flexible co-culture system enhances control over vessel formation and function.