Vascularizing Engineered Tissues for In Vivo and In Vitro Applications

摘要

Tissue engineering holds enormous potential to replace or restore function to a wide range of tissues, as well as to capture and control three-dimensional physiology. Despite advances in materials for scaffolding, and stem cell preservation and differentiation, the most successful applications of implantable tissues have continued to be in thin (< 2 mm) avascular tissues in which delivery of essential nutrients occurs primarily by diffusion. More complex organs or thicker connective tissue (>1cm) will only survive implantation if the tissue is rapidly vascularized, thereby ensuring an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients to the resident cells.