Development of a novel perfusion culture method for constructing vascularized 3-D cardiac tissues

Abstract

Thick three-dimensional (3-D) cardiac tissues have a great future potential in regenerative medicine for severe heart disease. Our laboratory has developed a fabrication method of cardiac tissues by stacking cell sheets. However, there is a limitation for stacking of cell sheets because of the cell necrosis due to lack of oxygen or nutrition. Therefore, for creating a thick tissue, it is necessary to supply oxygen and nutrients by sufficient vascular networks into the stacked cell sheet tissue and perfusion culture. In this study, we developed a new technology for vascularization with a tissue perfusion bioreactor system in vitro and attempted to create a cardiac tissues.