UC San Diego, Department of Bioengineering

Tissue engineering continues to hold enormous potential to replace or restore function to a wide range of tissues. However, despite advances in materials for scaffolding, and stem cell preservation and differentiation, the most successful applications have continued to be in thin (< 2 mm) avascular tissues in which delivery of essential nutrients occurs primarily by diffusion. More complex organs or thicker connective tissue (>1cm) will only survive when implanted if the tissue is rapidly vascularized, thereby ensuring that all cells receive an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients. The development of thick tissues beyond the diffusion limitation remains, perhaps, the greatest challenge facing the field of tissue engineering. The past decade has brought tremendous advances in our understanding of new blood vessel formation, providing a rich environment for innovative designs of vascularized thick implantable tissues. This seminar will describe our approach for creating a prevascularized tissue comprised of mature interconnected capillary networks and supporting pericytes, including early results on the in vitro and in vivo performance.