Construction of vascularized tissue-engineered breast with dual angiogenic and adipogenic micro-tissues

Ruopiao Ni; Chao Luo; Hai Ci; Di Sun; Ran An; Zhenxing Wang; Jie Yang; Yiqing Li; Jiaming Sun

doi:10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100539

Construction of vascularized tissue-engineered breast with dual angiogenic and adipogenic micro-tissues

Mater Today Bio. 2022 Dec 30:18:100539. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100539. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Ruopiao Ni^{1

2

3}, Chao Luo^{1

2}, Hai Ci^{1

2}, Di Sun^{1

2}, Ran An^{1

2}, Zhenxing Wang^{1

2}, Jie Yang^{1

2}, Yiqing Li³, Jiaming Sun^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plastic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, 430022, China.
² Wuhan Clinical Research Center for Superficial Organ Reconstruction, Wuhan, 430022, China.
³ Department of Vascular Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Hydrogel-based micro-tissue engineering technique, a bottom-up approach, is promising in constructing soft tissue of large size with homogeneous spatial distribution and superior regeneration capacity compared to the top-down approach. However, most of the studies employed micro-tissues with simple mesenchymal stem cells, which could hardly meet the growth of matrix and vessels. Therefore, we recommend a dual micro-tissues assembly strategy to construct vascularized tissue-engineered breast grafts (TEBGs). Adipose micro-tissues (AMs) and vessel micro-tissues (VMs) were fabricated by seeding adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) on collagen microgels (COLs) with a uniform diameter of ∼250 μm, respectively. TEBGs were constructed by injecting the dual micro-tissues into 3D printed breast-like Thermoplastic Urethane (TPU) scaffolds, then implanted into the subcutaneous pockets on the back of nude mice. After 3 months of implantation, TEBGs based on dual micro-tissues performed larger volume of adipose tissue regeneration and neo-vessel formation compared to TEBGs based on single AMs. This study extends the application of micro-tissue engineering technique for the construction of soft grafts, and is expected to be useful for creating heterogeneous tissue constructs in the future.

Keywords: 3D printing; ADSC, Adipose-derived stem cell; AM, Adipose micro-tissue; Breast reconstruction; COL, Collagen microgel; HUVEC, Human umbilical vein endothelial cell; Micro-tissue; Microfluidic technology; TEBG, Tissue-engineered breast graft; TPU, Thermoplastic urethane; Tissue-engineered breast; VM, Vessel micro-tissue.