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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Tissue Engineering by Intrinsic Vascularization in an In Vivo Tissue Engineering Chamber
Published on: May 30, 2016
Hypoxia-Inducible Factor Drives Vascularization of Modularly Assembled Engineered Tissue
Gabrielle C Lam1, Michael V Sefton1,2
11Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Impact Statement:
Using two inhibitory methods, we demonstrated that hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) plays an important role in vascularizing and oxygenating modularly-assembled engineered tissues. Each inhibitory technique elucidated a different mechanism by which this occurred. Whereas systemic inhibition negatively impacted early recruitment of host-derived cells, genetic inhibition in grafted endothelial cells was detrimental to their survival. Taken together, our study suggests that methods of HIF-mediated mechanisms could be harnessed to tune the extent and rate of vascularization in engineered tissue constructs.
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