Experimental approaches to vascularisation within tissue engineering constructs

Abstract

Tissue engineering opens up a new area to restore the function of damaged tissue or replace a defective organ. Common strategies in tissue engineering to repair and form new tissue containing a functional vascular network include the use of cells, growth factors, extracellular matrix proteins, and biophysical stimuli. Yet, formation of well-distributed, interconnected, and stable vascular network still remains challenging. In addition, anastomoses with host vasculature upon implantation and long-time survival of the new blood vessel in vivo are other critical issues to be addressed. This paper presents a brief review of recent advances in vascularization in vitro as well as in vivo for tissue engineering, along with suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• vascularization
• angiogenesis
• vasculogenesis
• biomaterial
• growth factors
• scaffold

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation [SHRF Reference # 2784]; and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [NSERC RGPIN-2014-05648].