Engineering new microvascular networks on-chip: ingredients, assembly, and best practices

Area of Science:

• Regenerative Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Tissue engineered grafts hold promise for treating diseased or injured tissues.
• Poor nutrient and waste transport limits graft viability after transplantation.
• Vascularization is critical for improving graft survival and function.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advancements in vascularizing tissue engineered grafts over the past decade.
• To critically discuss key components influencing microvascular self-assembly in engineered systems.
• To explore the potential of microphysiological systems for graft testing and translation.

Main Methods:

• Review of literature on microvascular self-assembly for graft vascularization.
• Analysis of critical components: endothelial cell source, supporting cells, biomaterials, biochemical cues, and biophysical forces.
• Discussion of bioengineered angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis.

Main Results:

• Microvascular self-assembly relies on natural physiological processes for vascular network formation.
• Tunable components significantly impact the development of self-assembled vascular networks.
• Microphysiological systems effectively model vascularized tissue constructs.

Conclusions:

• Microvascular self-assembly presents a viable strategy for vascularizing tissue engineered grafts.
• Further research into optimizing self-assembly components will advance vascularized microfluidic models.
• This approach holds significant potential for bench-to-clinic translation of regenerative therapies.