ABSTRACT
The absence of a sufficient vascular supply within tissue engineering (TE) constructs has been established as one of the major limiting factors in cell survival and implant success in the field of TE to date. Recently, cell-based approaches that involve the engineering of a nascent vasculature within a construct in vitro, prior to implantation, has emerged as a potential solution to overcome the issue of implant failure as a result of avascular necrosis. In this entry, we discuss this approach of “in vitro vascularization” and detail the numerous methods used to implement it. In addition, we discuss a number of approaches used to promote in vitro vascularization of TE constructs, including external stimuli and growth factor release. A number of approaches that involve the promotion of vascularization of scaffolds postimplantation are also discussed.
