Progress and challenges in vascular tissue engineering using self-organization/pre-designed approaches
IntroductionCurrently, organ transplantation is the most effective therapy for end-stage organ failure. However, the demand for life-saving organ transplants far exceeds the supply of available organs, including the kidney, liver, heart, and lung owing to organ shortage (Lauerer et al., 2016). To address this problem, tissue engineering has offered potential strategies for the construction of solid tissues and organs using cells, signaling factors, and scaffolds (Langer and Vacanti, 1993). Over the last several decades, various approaches have been developed for the construction of organ-specific tissues by utilizing cell culture platforms, such as porous scaffolds and decellularized matrices, and scaffold-free culture methods, including cell sheet engineering and spheroid culture (Uygun et al., 2010;Bao et al., 2011;No et al., 2012;Damania et al., 2014). Despite great progress, limitations remain for medical and clinical applications of tissue-engineered constructs owing to the lack of functional vascular networks, which may result in tissue dysfunction, such as hemorrhage, clot formation, and tissue hypoxia.Functional vascular networks should be constructed in tissue-engineered constructs. Establishing a hierarchical tubular network is required to supply oxygen and nutrients to the tissue constructs. In particular, following morphological