Hydrogel vascularization through co-culture of MSCs and HUVECs in gelatin-based porous hydrogels

• Main Author: Soh, Wen Jing
• Other Authors: Wang Dongan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75719
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Tissue engineering is a widely recognized and promising technology used for regenerative medicine. Engineered tissue requires sufficient transport of oxygen and nutrients through vascular networks therefore it requires sufficient vascularization in order for successful integration into host tissue. Hydrogel vascularization can be achieved through the addition of dissolvable gelatin microspheres where it could enhance the porosity of hydrogels. The pore size of the scaffold is among one of the factors that would affect the ability of vascularization and the ability of the host vascular tissue invasion into the scaffold. In this study, a gelatin based porous hydrogels were developed using photopolymerizable gelatin methacrylate hydrogels with dissolvable gelatin microspheres. As porous Gel-MA hydrogels is seen as a promising scaffold for the use as vascularization tissue constructs. Hence, in this present study, co-encapsulate human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVECs) and mesenchymal stem cells in gelatin based porous hydrogels to evaluate on the outcome of cell-cell interactions between them in the hydrogels and thereafter to experiment and study if porous Gel-MA hydrogels provides a suitable microenvironment for the co-culture of hMSCs and HUVECs to spread, proliferate and differentiate well. It was then investigated in vitro. The results obtained based on the co-culture of HUVECs and hMSCs in vitro showed that lumen-like structure was formed around pore structures in the gelatin-based porous hydrogels at day 7. In the co-culture system, it showed that HUVECs were able to grow faster and proliferate better compared to monoculture.