Travelling ultrasound promotes vasculogenesis of three-dimensional-monocultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Abstract

To generate three-dimensional tissue in vitro, promoting vasculogenesis in cell aggregates is an important factor. Here, we found that ultrasound promoted vasculogenesis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Promotion of HUVEC network formation and lumen formation were observed using our method. In addition to morphological evaluations, protein expression was quantified by western blot assays. As a result, expression of proteins related to vasculogenesis and the response to mechanical stress on cells was enhanced by exposure to ultrasound. Although several previous studies have shown that ultrasound may promote vasculogenesis, the effect of ultrasound was unclear because of unregulated ultrasound, the complex culture environment, or two-dimensional-cultured HUVECs that cannot form a lumen structure. In this study, regulated ultrasound was propagated on three-dimensional-monocultured HUVECs, which clarified the effect of ultrasound on vasculogenesis. We believe this finding may be an innovation in the tissue engineering field.

Keywords: mechanotransduction; tissue engineering; ultrasound; vasculogenesis.