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Implanted scaffolds: Pre-ordered vessels halt ischaemia

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 1, Article number: 0089 (2017) Cite this article

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Implanted scaffolds bearing 3D-printed parallel endothelialized channels restore blood perfusion in ischaemic hind limbs and infarcted hearts in rodents.

When designing vascularized constructs, several factors should be taken into consideration: the need for ECs, which have a paracrine effect on the wound area (as demonstrated by the injection of ECs in the proximity of the injury site5); the stabilization of the implanted vasculature, which can be achieved by co-seeding the ECs with supporting cells6,7 (in fact, sufficiently long culture times to allow the forming vessels to reach maturation enhance the penetration of the host vasculature into implanted grafts8); the size of the implanted vessels (larger vessels more efficiently carry blood over longer distances); and vessel geometry (because dramatic differences in blood-vessel architecture exist across organs, careful design of the vasculature pattern can impact the integration and anastomosis processes occurring after implantation). Also, direct connections between the implanted biomaterial and the host vasculature leads to perfusion in ischaemic sites and enhances tissue repair4,9. Organized vascular constructs can be made through the application of mechanical forces10, and scaffolds can be pre-patterned with geometrically pre-defined vasculature11,12 via microfabrication or 3D-printing techniques13.

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Figure 1: Scaffolds with organized vascular channels rescue ischaemia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Technion, 3200003, Haifa, Israel

    Shahar Ben-Shaul, Shira Landau & Shulamit Levenberg

Authors
  1. Shahar Ben-Shaul
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  2. Shira Landau
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  3. Shulamit Levenberg
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Correspondence to Shulamit Levenberg.

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Ben-Shaul, S., Landau, S. & Levenberg, S. Implanted scaffolds: Pre-ordered vessels halt ischaemia. Nat Biomed Eng 1, 0089 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-017-0089

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