The development and alignment of engineered microvasculature in fibrin gel

Abstract

The ability to engineer microvasculature would be of great utility for the tissue engineering of highly metabolic tissues such as myocardium. In addition, the alignment of such a network is critical to the success of using it to deliver oxygen to tissue cells because it provides natural inlet and outlet sides for perfusion. In this work, the ability of engineered microvessels to align with their fibrin gel matrix has been examined and a bioreactor has been designed to harness this ability and perfuse the engineered tissue. The results indicate that engineered microvasculature can be aligned via cell-induced gel compaction and that this compaction improves lumen density. Interstitial flow provided an additional increase in lumen density. A mathematical model of fluid flow through engineered microvessels and a variety of image analysis methods were also developed.