Organ-on-a-chip systems for vascular biology

Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) platforms involve the miniaturization of cell culture systems and enable a variety of novel experimental approaches. These range from modeling the independent effects of biophysical forces on cells to screening novel drugs in multi-organ microphysiological systems, all within microscale devices. As in living systems, the incorporation of vascular structure is a key feature common to almost all organ-on-a-chip systems. In this review we highlight recent advances in organ-on-a-chip technologies with a focus on the vasculature. We first present the developmental process of the blood vessels through which vascular cells assemble into networks and remodel to form complex vascular beds under flow. We then review self-assembled vascular models and flow systems for the study of vascular development and biology as well as pre-patterned vascular models for the generation of perfusable microvessels for modeling vascular and tissue function. We finally conclude with a perspective on developing future OOC approaches for studying different aspects of vascular biology. We highlight the fit for purpose selection of OOC models towards either simple but powerful testbeds for therapeutic development, or complex vasculature to accurately replicate human physiology for specific disease modeling and tissue regeneration.