The reconstruction of critical sized bone defects can be challenging in clinical practice. Critical bone defects can be caused by malformation, cancer, trauma or infection. Regardless of the entity, the current gold standard is autologous tissue transfer, which can be associated with significant donor side morbidity and limited tissue availability. One way to circumvent these problems is the generation of bioartificial bone tissue.For bone formation and regeneration, a sufficient vascularization providing oxygen and nutrition supply is indispensable. [1][2][3] Strategies to improve vascularization in bone tissue engineering applications include the use of angiogenic growth factors, endothelial cells (ECs) and the surgical induced angiogenesis by means of arteriovenous

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Adequate vascularization is a fundamental prerequisite for bone regeneration, formation and tissue engineering applications. Endothelialization of scaffold materials is a promising strategy to support neovascularization and bone tissue formation. Besides oxygen and nutrition supply, the endothelial network plays an important role concerning osteogenic differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells and consecutive bone formation. In this study we aimed to enhance the growth stimulating, proangiogenic and osteogenic features of the ADSC and HUVEC coculture system by means of VEGFA165 and BMP2 application. We were able to show that sprouting phenomena and osteogenic differentiation were enhanced in the ADSC/HUVEC coculture. Furthermore, apoptosis was unidirectionally decreased in HUVECs, but these effects were not further enhanced upon VEGFA165 or BMP2 application. In summary, the ADSC/HUVEC coculture system per se is a powerful tool for bone tissue engineering applications.

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