Description
Motivation: Knowledge about the flow field of the blood in surrounding tissues and the red blood cells within capillaries is important for a physical understanding of vascular networks remodeling and organization [1-2]. Keeping this in mind, our aim is to study and tune the vascular organization within both artificial eggshell systems and engineered perfusable muscle tissues using external flows.Methods: Both artificial eggshell systems and muscle tissue perfusion chambers were replica molded using PDMS. Red blood cells velocities and vascular network properties such as vessel diameter, length, sprouting etc. have been characterized using in-house assembled microscopy.
Results: We conduct an experimental study on the flow field, both within the endothelialized perfusable microchannels in muscle tissues and the microchannel placed on the top of vascularized membrane within artificial eggshell systems (see Figure) to understand the influence of fluid flow on vascular network organization. We achieved spatiotemporal control of fluid perfusion and vascular cells within both the systems. Our experimental data are complemented by numerical simulations.
Conclusions: Coupling fluid flow parameters to the organization of vascular networks leads to a deeper understanding regarding the structural information and mechanical environment of these developing vascular networks, which is an important component in controlling vascular organization in engineered tissues.
Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge the financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (724469).
References:
[1] Nakajima H and Mochizuki N 2017 Cell Cycle 16 1893-1901
[2] Rouwkema J and Khademhosseini 2016 Trends Biotechnol. 34 733-74
| Period | 8 Sept 2021 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 31st Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials, ESB 2021 |
| Event type | Project |
| Conference number | 31 |
| Location | Porto, PortugalShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |