Engineered blood vessel networks connect to host vasculature via wrapping-and-tapping anastomosis.

ABSTRACT: Rapid blood perfusion is critical for postimplantation survival of thick, prevascularized bioartificial tissues. Yet the mechanism by which implanted vascular networks inosculate, or anastomose, with the host vasculature has been unknown, making it difficult to develop optimized strategies for facilitating perfusion. Here we show that implanted vascular networks anastomose with host vessels through a previously unidentified process of "wrapping and tapping" between the engrafted endothelial cells (ECs) and the host vasculature. At the host-implant interface, implanted ECs first wrap around nearby host vessels and then cause basement membrane and pericyte reorganization and localized displacement of the underlying host endothelium. In this way, the implanted ECs replace segments of host ves

SUBMITTER: Cheng G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3208287 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature