Abstract
There is a demand for reconstructing organs in the field of the tissue engineering because of the donor shortage. In particular, capillary networks are essential for the maintenance of reconstructed 3D tissues/organs because they deliver nutrients and oxygen to the peripheral cells. In addition, it is necessary to form capillary anastomosis for constructing a large capillary network. Here, we used a microfluidc device to reconstuct capillary networks covered with pericytes, and investigated culture conditions to achieve capillary anastomosis. A microfluidic device used in this study has 2 microluidic channels and an intervining gel region. The gel region was filled with fibrin-collagen gel, while microfluidic channels were filled with cell suspension to coculture human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). HUVECs were seeded on one side of the gel and HUVEC-MSC mixtures at the ratio of 2:8, 5:5, and 8:2 were seeded on the other side. The results revealed that capillary anastomosis were well established in the condition of HUVEC:MSC=2:8. In addition, the resulting capillary networks on day 10 were partially covered with pericytes. Our results suggest that the interaction between HUVECs and MSCs is important for regulating capillary anastomosis. Further investigations will be needed to elucidate the detailed mechanism of anastomosis.
