Vascularization in Tissue Engineering: Angiogenesis versus Inosculation

作者：Matthias W. Laschke, Michael Dieter Menger · 发表于：European Surgical Research · 年份：2012 · DOI：10.1159/000336876 · 被引用次数：208 · 研究领域：Electrospun Nanofibers in Biomedical Applications、Angiogenesis and VEGF in Cancer、3D Printing in Biomedical Research

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The key challenge in tissue engineering is the establishment of an efficient vascularization for tissue constructs guaranteeing long-term survival and function. Vascularization may be achieved by the stimulation of angiogenesis or the inosculation of preformed microvascular networks within the implants to the host microvasculature. The present review provides an overview of these two concepts applied in tissue engineering. METHODS: A literature search was performed in PubMed for publications focusing on vascularization, angiogenesis and inosculation in tissue engineering. RESULTS: Several strategies have been proposed to stimulate the ingrowth of new blood vessels into tissue constructs. These include the modification of the chemical composition and architecture of scaffolds, their bioactivation by incorporation of growth factor delivery systems or by cell seeding as well as the stimulation of stem cell recruitment. However, because angiogenesis is a time-consuming process, all of these approaches cannot prevent ischemic cell death within larger 3-dimensional tissue constructs during the initial phase after implantation. To overcome this problem, in vitro or in situ prevascularization has emerged as a novel concept in tissue engineering. This bears the advantage that preformed microvascular networks within tissue constructs simply have to inosculate with the host microvasculature at the implantation site to get completely blood-perfused within a short peri...