Due to the global burden of cardiovascular disease, there exists a need for readily available blood vessel replacements that can integrate into the patient’s native vasculature. Microtissue methods seek to address this need by providing cellular aggregates that behave closest to in vivo tissues. Furthermore, microtissues can be utilized as building blocks for larger graft structures. The Funnel-Guide macro-tissue building platform allows for stacking of toroid microtissues to create a fused, lumen structure in a high-throughput manner. Previous work showed that more contractile cell types used in these microtissues result in a less consistent and uneven macro-tissue tube. The work of this thesis aims to characterize the morphological properties of these vascular microtissues in order to provide consistent “building blocks” to use in the Funnel-Guide. Tori composed of primary endothelial cells were observed both inside and outside mold structures for rates of contractility and overall dimensional changes. The effect of seeding density and passage number were evaluated on toroid contractility in-mold to develop a Pop-off assay. Outside of the mold, vascular tori at two densities were observed to contract and present a window of time after self-assembly and before lumen closure where there was highest consistency in building parts. The results of this thesis seek to provide knowledge of the contractile properties of endothelial cell microtissues and develop metrics to evaluate future building microtissues of other cell types.
Kanellias, Marianne,
"Morphological Characterization of Vascular Toroid Building Blocks"
(2019).
Biomedical Engineering Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/k8my-h476
