Microfluidic perfusion culture system for multilayer artery tissue models.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Tissue Engineering
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Developing functional tissue-engineered arteries is crucial for vascular repair and disease modeling.
• Existing methods often rely on scaffolds, which can complicate fabrication and integration.
• A need exists for efficient, scaffold-free methods to create physiologically relevant artery models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel assembly technique and perfusion culture system for fabricating scaffold-free artery tissue models.
• To evaluate the structural integrity and mechanical properties of these engineered artery models.
• To demonstrate the system's applicability across various artery sizes and its capacity for mechanical stimulation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized sheet-like tissues for facile fabrication of multilayer tubular constructs without a solid scaffold.
• Employed a perfusion culture system to maintain construct shape, mimic in vivo conditions, and enable mechanical stimulation.
• Characterized the multilayer structure using fluorescent dyes and measured equivalent Young's modulus under internal pressure.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated multilayer tubular artery tissue models using a scaffold-free assembly technique.
• The perfusion culture system effectively maintained the shape and provided a physiologically relevant environment.
• Measured mechanical properties, including equivalent Young's modulus, demonstrating the models' potential for studying vascular development and function.

Conclusions:

• The developed technique enables rapid fabrication of scaffold-free, multilayer artery tissue models.
• The perfusion culture system supports the maintenance and mechanical stimulation of these models.
• This approach offers a promising platform for creating functional vascular grafts and disease models.