Construction of Pedicled Smooth Muscle Tissues by Combining the Capsule Tissue and Cell Sheet Engineering

The survival of engineered tissue requires the formation of its own capillary network, which can anastomose with the host vasculature after transplantation. Currently, while many strategies, such as modifying the scaffold material, adding endothelial cells, or angiogenic factors, have been researched, engineered tissue implanted in vivo cannot timely access to sufficient blood supply, leading to ischemic apoptosis or shrinkage. Constructing vascularized engineered tissue with its own axial vessels and subsequent pedicled transfer is promising to solve the problem of vascularization in tissue engineering. In this study, we used the tissue expander capsule as a novel platform for vascularizing autologous smooth muscle cell (SMC) sheets and fabricating vascularized engineered tissue with its own vascular pedicle. First, we verified which time point was the most effective for constructing an axial capsule vascular bed. Second, we compared the outcome of SMC sheet transplantation onto the expander capsule and ...