Artificial blood vessels grow with the help of mechanical forces
New technique could allow for the scalable production of vascular tissue networks for regenerative medicine The post Artificial blood vessels grow with the help of mechanical forces appeared first on Physics World .
Tissue engineering presents a method to restore, maintain or replace biological tissues. However, creating blood vessels through traditional fabrication methods, such as 3D printing, often proves challenging due to their inability to accurately produce fine capillaries and veins. A team of engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised an innovative technique utilizing mechanical forces to overcome this limitation.
By employing a device called the "blood-vessel-on-a-chip," the researchers aim to pave the way for the large-scale production of vascular networks that can be implanted into the body to replace tissues damaged by disease or injury. Led by Ritu Raman, the team created their chip by filling a Petri dish with a gel enriched with nutrients and cell-growth factors.
A small magnet was embedded within the gel, and a thin, hollow tube was introduced and coated with live endothelial cells – cells naturally lining blood vessels in the human body. As the endothelial cells attached to the inner surface of the tube, they commenced the growth of new, capillary-like vessels within the gel. Upon applying mechanical forces to the embedded magnet, the researchers discovered that these forces stretched the vessels, promoted the formation of additional capillaries, and extended their length.
Furthermore, they demonstrated that the direction of such mechanical forces could be dynamically altered, allowing for the precise "steering" of blood vessel growth in all three spatial dimensions (x, y, z) and the creation of complex geometric structures, such as L-shaped branches. This approach, referred to as "magnetic matrix actuation," enables the non-invasive stimulation of tissues to precisely manipulate the growth of blood vessels in the laboratory.
The researchers also investigated the role of a gene called PIEZO1, which is sensitive to mechanical pressure, in the process of angiogenesis. By inhibiting PIEZO1 in endothelial cells, the team observed a significant reduction in new blood vessel growth, suggesting that mechanical forces may trigger PIEZO1 ion channels, thereby stimulating new vessel formation.
Raman and her team aspire to harness their method for creating intricate vascular networks within engineered tissues, ultimately enabling the development of artificial implants to repair damage caused by disease or traumatic injury.
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