title: Hydrogels for Engineering of Perfusable Vascular Networks.
abstract: Hydrogels are commonly used biomaterials for tissue engineering. With their high-water content, good biocompatibility and biodegradability they resemble the natural extracellular environment and have been widely used as scaffolds for 3D cell culture and studies of cell biology. The possible size of such hydrogel constructs with embedded cells is limited by the cellular demand for oxygen and nutrients. For the fabrication of large and complex tissue constructs, vascular structures become necessary within the hydrogels to supply the encapsulated cells. In this review, we discuss the types of hydrogels that are currently used for the fabrication of constructs with embedded vascular networks, the key properties of hydrogels needed for this purpose and current techniques to engineer perfusable vascular structures into these hydrogels. We then discuss directions for future research aimed at engineering of vascularized tissue for implantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, D-81675 Munich, Germany. liujuan_1018@126.com.|Department of Hand Surgery, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China. liujuan_1018@126.com.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, D-81675 Munich, Germany. zhenghuaiyuan@126.com.|Department of Hand Surgery, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China. zhenghuaiyuan@126.com.
authors.forename: Huaiyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, D-81675 Munich, Germany. patrina.poh@tum.de.
authors.forename: Patrina S P
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Poh
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, D-81675 Munich, Germany. machens@lrz.tum.de.
authors.forename: Hans-Günther
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Machens
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, D-81675 Munich, Germany. a.schilling@tum.de.|Center for Applied Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (CANTER), Munich University of Applied Science, D-80335 Munich, Germany. a.schilling@tum.de.
authors.forename: Arndt F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Schilling
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D020100:Hydrogels
keywords: fabrication; hydrogels; tissue engineering; vascular networks