" Building a Microvasculature "
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Abstract: A clinical motivation for building microvessels arises from the need to re-establish or improve blood flow to a compromised or damaged tissue by regenerating a new vascular supply, so called therapeutic angiogenesis. Additionally, critical to any successful tissue engineering effort is the ability to quickly perfuse the tissue construct when implanted. Therefore, the ability to build or grow microvessels is critically important for both in vivo vascular regeneration (i.e. therapeutic angiogenesis) and in vitro tissue construction. We have developed technologies for building and patterning microvessels that are capable of rapidly forming stable, functional microvasculatures. In addition to exploring the utility of these microvascular constructs in tissue engineering applications, we are using them to examine tissue mechanics during new blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) and microvessel biology.