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Nature Biotechnology 23, 879–884 (1 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/nbt1109

Engineering vascularized skeletal muscle tissue

Shulamit Levenberg , Jeroen Rouwkema , Mara Macdonald , Evan S Garfein , Daniel S Kohane , Diane C Darland , Robert Marini , Clemens A van Blitterswijk , Richard C Mulligan , Patricia A D'Amore & Robert Langer

One of the major obstacles in engineering thick, complex tissues such as muscle is the need to vascularize the tissue in vitro. Vascularization in vitro could maintain cell viability during tissue growth, induce structural organization and promote vascularization upon implantation.