Vascular networks are central to the functioning of most tissues. We use a two-cell approach to bioengineer human vascular networks in vivo. In our model, human blood-derived endothelial colony-forming cells are combined with human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a biocompatible hydrogel and injected subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice where they form an organized vascular network that joins with the mouse vasculature. This model is ideally suited for studies on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of human vascular network formation and for developing strategies to vascularize tissues.
Key publications
Host non-inflammatory neutrophils mediate the engraftment of bioengineered vascular networks
Lin RZ, Lee CN, Moreno-Luna R, Neumeyer J, Piekarski B, Zhou P, Moses MA, Sachdev M, Pu WT, Emani S, Melero-Martin JM
Nat Biomed Eng 2017; 1:0081
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PDF: Lin et al., 2017
Transdermal regulation of vascular network bioengineering using a photopolymerizable methacrylated gelatin hydrogel
Lin RZ, Chen YC, Moreno-Luna R, Khademhosseini A, Melero-Martin JM
Biomaterials 2013; 34(28):6785-96
PDF: Lin et al., 2013
Engineering robust and functional vascular networks in vivo with human adult and cord blood-derived progenitor cells
Melero-Martin JM, De Obaldia ME, Kang S-Y, Khan ZA, Yuan L, Oettgen P, Bischoff J
Circ Res 2008; 103:194-202
PDF: Melero-Martin et al., 2008