Rapid casting of patterned vascular networks for perfusable engineered three-dimensional tissues

• Jordan S. Miller,
• Kelly R. Stevens,
• Michael T. Yang,
• Brendon M. Baker,
• Duc-Huy T. Nguyen,
• Daniel M. Cohen,
• Esteban Toro,
• Alice A. Chen,
• Peter A. Galie,
• Xiang Yu,
• Ritika Chaturvedi,
• Sangeeta N. Bhatia
• & Christopher S. Chen

• Nature Materials

   

  (2012)

   

  doi:10.1038/nmat3357

  Received

   

  25 October 2011 

  Accepted

   

  15 May 2012 

  Published online

   

  01 July 2012

  
  In the absence of perfusable vascular networks, three-dimensional (3D) engineered tissues densely populated with cells quickly develop a necrotic core¹. Yet the lack of a general approach to rapidly construct such networks remains a major challenge for 3D tissue culture^2, 3, 4. Here, we printed rigid 3D filament networks of carbohydrate glass, and used them as a cytocompatible sacrificial template in engineered tissues containing living cells to generate cylindrical networks that could be lined with endothelial cells and perfused with blood under high-pressure pulsatile flow. Because this simple vascular casting approach allows independent control of network geometry, endothelialization and extravascular tissue, it is compatible with a wide variety of cell types, synthetic and natural extracellular matrices, and crosslinking strategies. We also demonstrated that the perfused vascular channels sustained the metabolic function of primary rat hepatocytes in engineered tissue constructs that otherwise exhibited suppressed function in their core.