Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CapBed (Engineered Capillary Beds for Successful Prevascularization of Tissue Engineering Constructs)
Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2021-10-31
CapBed aims at establishing a new technology to fabricate in vitro capillary beds that include a vascular axis that can be anastomosed with a patient circulation. Such capillary beds could be used as prime tools to prevascularize in vitro engineered tissues and provide fast perfusion of those after transplantation to a patient. Cutting edge techniques will be for the first time integrated in a disruptive approach to address the requirements listed above. Innovative fabrication technologies such as 3D printing and laser photoablation will be used for the fabrication of the micropatterned matrix that will allow fluid flow through microfluidics. The resulting functional capillary beds can be used with virtually every tissue engineering strategy rendering the proposed strategy with massive economical, scientific and medical potential.
Several materials have been tested to fabricate hydrogels compatible with the laser ablation process. Some hydrogels, while apparently transparent, were found to scatter laser beams and were therefore ineligible to be used with laser ablation. Others have shown to be fully compatible with laser ablation within the tested concentrations but protocols to improve mechanical properties have to be applied. These materials were then used to ablate pre-designed microchannel networks in the interior of hydrogels. To achieve this, programming tools coupled with external triggering components were employed. More complex 3D geometries that better mimic native capillary beds are being now created and perfused with fluorescent beads, demonstrating the interconnectivity of the different channels.
Concurrently, several methodologies to produce model tissues that can be combined with the capillary bed are being developed. Biomaterial-based sponges are being used as 3D matrices for SVF culture. Prevascular networks were successfully produced in said matrices without the use of extrinsic growth factors.
One other potential application of the capillary bed is cancer research. Vascularized multicellular assembloid models of melanoma that can potentially be integrated with the capillary bed have been created. Some of these models are also being used to screen the effects of laser ablation, which is used as a tool to ablate tumors from patients.
Finally, novel protocols to extend the shelf life of engineered tissues, such as the capillary beds, are being developed by using hypothermic preservation. Several existing solutions and compounds are being tested and compared.