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Engineering the multiscale complexity of vascular networks
Open accessAbstract
The survival of vertebrate organisms depends on highly regulated delivery of oxygen and nutrients through vascular networks that pervade nearly all tissues in the body. Dysregulation of these vascular networks is implicated in many common human diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes and cancer. Therefore, engineers have sought to create vascular networks within engineered tissues for applications such as regenerative therapies, human disease modelling and pharmacological testing. Yet engineering vascular networks has historically remained difficult, owing to both incomplete understanding of vascular structure and technical limitations for vascular fabrication. This Review highlights the materials advances that have enabled transformative progress in vascular engineering by ushering in new tools for both visualizing and building vasculature. New methods such as bioprinting, organoids and microfluidic systems are discussed, which have enabled the fabrication of 3D vascular topologies at a cellular scale with lumen perfusion. These approaches to vascular engineering are categorized into technology-driven and nature-driven approaches. Finally, the remaining knowledge gaps, emerging frontiers and opportunities for this field are highlighted, including the steps required to replicate the multiscale complexity of vascular networks found in nature.
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Metadata
- Authors
- O’Connor, C., Brady, E., Zheng, Y., Moore, E., & Stevens, K. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stevens, Kelly R.
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Materials
- Published
- 2022-05-31
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 702-716
- ISSN
- 2058-8437 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9154041
- OpenAlex
- W4281687739
- Cited by
- 271
- References
- 219
- Citations by year
- 2026: 66 · 2025: 80 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 10
- FWCI
- 4.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Materials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (R01HL141570)
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- American Heart Association
- National Institutes of Health (UG3TR002158)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL141570)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM007266)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK128551)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Keywords
- vascular system, vascular engineering, bioprinting, organoids, microfluidics, engineered tissues, regenerative medicine, disease modeling
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