Controlling shape and position of vascular formation in engineered tissues by arbitrary assembly of endothelial cells.

Cellular self-assembly based on cell-to-cell communication is a well-known tissue organizing process in living bodies. Hence, integrating cellular self-assembly processes into tissue engineering is a promising approach to fabricate well-organized functional tissues. In this research, we investigated the capability of endothelial cells (ECs) to control shape and position of vascular formation using arbitral-assembling techniques in three-dimensional engineered tissues. To quantify the degree of migration of ECs in endothelial network formation, image correlation analysis was conducted. Positive correlation between the original positions of arbitrarily assembled ECs and the positions of formed endothelial networks indicated the potential for controlling shape and position of vascular formations in engineered tissues. To demonstrate the feasibility of controlling vascular formations, engineered tissues with vascular networks in triangle and circle patterns were made. The technique reported here employs cellular self-assembly for tissue engineering and is expected to provide fundamental beneficial methods to supply various functional tissues for drug screening and regenerative medicine.

Rate control of cell sheet recovery by incorporating hydrophilic pattern in thermoresponsive cell culture dish.

Thready stripe-polyacrylamide (PAAm) pattern was fabricated on a thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm) surface, and their surface properties were characterized. A PIPAAm surface spin-coated with positive photoresist was irradiated through a 5 µm/5 µm or a 10 µm/10-µm black and white striped photomask, resulting in the radical polymerization of AAm on the photoirradiated area. After staining with Alexa488 bovine serum albumin, the stripe-patterned surface was clearly observed and the patterned surface was also observed by a phase contrast image of an atomic force microscope. NIH-3T3 (3T3) single cells were able to be cultured at 37°C on the patterned surfaces as well as on a PIPAAm surface without pattern, and the detachment of adhered cells was more rapidly from the patterned surface after reducing temperature. Furthermore, the rate of detachment of 3T3 confluent cell sheet on the patterned surface was accelerated, compared with on a conventional PIPAAm surface under the static condition. The rate control of cell sheet recovery should contribute the preservations of cell phenotype and biological functions of cell sheet for applying to clinical trials.

Control of the formation of vascular networks in 3D tissue engineered constructs.

Construction of bio-mimetic well-organized three-dimensional (3D) tissue with various cells in vitro is one of the ultimate goals of tissue engineering. In particular, fabrication of vasculature in 3D tissue is one of the most important tasks in tissue engineering, because a vascular network is indispensable for almost every tissue in our body. Here, we sandwiched stripe patterned endothelial cells by randomly cultured fibroblast sheets to control the formation of vasculature in the tissue. The endothelial cells left the original pattern and formed a random network between the two sheets, but, where fibroblasts were focally oriented, some endothelial cells changed their orientation to the same direction as the surrounding fibroblasts. Based on this phenomenon, we sandwiched stripe-patterned endothelial cells between parallel-oriented fibroblast sheets to construct a continuous pre-vascular structure. In the tissue, endothelial cells maintained the shape of their original pattern. On the other hand, stripe-patterned endothelial cells that were vertically sandwiched between oriented fibroblast sheets diverged from the original pattern at right angles, so that they were aligned with the surrounding fibroblasts. These data indicates that, 3D design with consideration of cell-to-cell interaction is critical to fabricate a specific 3D tissue structure. The 3D-designed tissue will become a powerful tool for the study of pharmacology and biology, the substitution of animal models and the fabrication of vascularized tissue grafts.

Three-dimensional cell-dense constructs containing endothelial cell-networks are an effective tool for in vivo and in vitro vascular biology research.

Angiogenesis is a complicated natural process, and understanding the mechanism by which it occurs is important for medical, pharmaceutical, and cell biological sciences. Many techniques for investigating angiogenesis have been reported. In this study, we introduced a novel application of a cell culture technique that can be used in in vitro and in vivo vascular biology research. Cultivated endothelial cells (ECs) were harvested from temperature responsive culture dishes by reducing the temperature, without the need for a proteinase treatment. For this technique, the direct contact of ECs with fibroblasts was important for the formation of a capillary-like network in vitro. Moreover, layered cell sheets containing EC-networks produced lumen and vascular structures in the three-dimensional constructs, as well as in the construct transplanted into a living body. Thus, our culture technique was able to create cell sheets and three-dimensional constructs containing EC-networks, because they preserved normal and intrinsic cell-cell direct contact and various cell adhesive factors. Moreover, the thickness of these three-dimensional (3-D) constructs could be controlled by the number of layered cell sheets. These observations indicated that our novel technology contributed to the progress of vascular biology and lead to a new tool that can be used in in vivo and in vitro vascular biology research.