Published papers

Donor organ shortages drive an urgent need for engineered hepatocyte tissues; however, functional vascular integration remains a major bottleneck in liver tissue engineering. Current vascularization strategies struggle to achieve perfusable microvessels that penetrate hepatocyte tissue. Furthermore, recapitulating hepatic regeneration in vitro remains challenging. This study presents a paracrine factor local gradient (PFLG)-generating system that constructs vascularized, perfusable hepatocyte tissues and recapitulates the perfusion-mediated proliferative activity of primary hepatocytes. The PFLG-generating platform integrates fibroblast-loaded cryogels with a microfluidic device to direct angiogenesis prior to hepatocyte seeding, thereby enabling microvessels to penetrate 3D hepatocyte tissue. Within the vascularized constructs, microvessels directly penetrated the hepatocyte parenchyma, recapitulating the intimate hepatocyte–microvessel contacts observed in vivo. These constructs enhanced hepatocyte polarity and promoted functional bile canaliculi formation. Importantly, perfusion culture induced robust hepatocyte proliferative activity, as evidenced by a significant increase in Ki67-positive hepatocytes, including mitotic cells, without loss of cellular polarity. By contrast, this proliferative response was minimal under static conditions. Time-lapse imaging and functional assays confirmed perfusion through penetrating microvessels. These findings demonstrate that perfusion-mediated cues are essential for inducing hepatocyte cell-cycle re-entry while maintaining functional polarity. This modular and programmable culture platform lays the foundation for scaling-up toward transplantable liver tissues.

Tissue engineers have utilised a variety of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds for controlling multicellular dynamics and the resulting tissue microstructures. In particular, cutting-edge microfabrication technologies, such as 3D bioprinting, provide increasingly complex structures. However, unpredictable microtissue detachment from scaffolds, which ruins desired tissue structures, is becoming an evident problem. To overcome this issue, we elucidated the mechanism underlying collective cellular detachment by combining a new computational simulation method with quantitative tissue-culture experiments. We first quantified the stochastic processes of cellular detachment shown by vascular smooth muscle cells on model curved scaffolds and found that microtissue morphologies vary drastically depending on cell contractility, substrate curvature, and cell-substrate adhesion strength. To explore this mechanism, we developed a new particle-based model that explicitly describes stochastic processes of multicellular dynamics, such as adhesion, rupture, and large deformation of microtissues on structured surfaces. Computational simulations using the developed model successfully reproduced characteristic detachment processes observed in experiments. Crucially, simulations revealed that cellular contractility-induced stress is locally concentrated at the cell-substrate interface, subsequently inducing a catastrophic process of collective cellular detachment, which can be suppressed by modulating cell contractility, substrate curvature, and cell-substrate adhesion. These results show that the developed computational method is useful for predicting engineered tissue dynamics as a platform for prediction-guided scaffold design. Statement of significance: Microfabrication technologies aiming to control multicellular dynamics by engineering 3D scaffolds are attracting increasing attention for modelling in cell biology and regenerative medicine. However, obtaining microtissues with the desired 3D structures is made considerably more difficult by microtissue detachments from scaffolds. This study reveals a key mechanism behind this detachment by developing a novel computational method for simulating multicellular dynamics on designed scaffolds. This method enabled us to predict microtissue dynamics on structured surfaces, based on cell mechanics, substrate geometry, and cell-substrate interaction. This study provides a platform for the physics-based design of micro-engineered scaffolds and thus contributes to prediction-guided biomaterials design in the future.

We report on a novel microdevice to tune the curvature of a cell-adhering surface by controlling the air-pressure and micro-slit. Human aortic smooth muscle cells were cultured on demi-cylindrical concaves formed on a microdevice. Their shape-adapting behavior could be tracked when the groove direction was changed to the orthogonal direction. This microdevice demonstrated live observation of cells responding to dynamic changes of the anisotropic curvature of the adhering surface and could serve as a new platform to pursue mechanobiology on curved surfaces.

Recent progress in microengineering has included the demonstration of various micropumps; however, these pumps are typically driven by an external energy sources such as electrical power source. Thus, there is a limitation to the integration of such pumps into microdevices. Here, we report fabrication of the world smallest autonomous hybrid pump powered by cardiomyocytes that self-organize into microtissues bridging PDMS made elastic microstructure. First, it was confirmed that cardiomyocytes formed several contractile bridges crossing the side walls of micro-groove and optimized the conditions under which they formed. Second, an actual ultra-small fluid oscilaltion unit for pumping (200 μm × 200 μm × 150 μm)was fabricated by embedding the micro-piers in a semi-closed microfabricated space filled with physiological buffer and closed with a cover glass lid on the device. Spontaneous and periodical oscillations of both micro-piers and the fluid in the device were confirmed. Simulation to understand the flow pattern and distribution of the flow velocity matches well with the experimental results. The theoretical flow rate assuming the use of ideal check valves was 1.0 nL/min. In the future, we expect this cardiomyocyte-driven device to be applied to applications such as in vivo micropumps, small-scale organs-on-a-chip and large-scale drug discovery assays.

Every organ demonstrates specific vascular characteristics and functions maintained by interactions of endothelial cells (ECs) and parenchymal cells. Particularly, brain ECs play a central role in the formation of a functional blood brain barrier (BBB). Organ-specific ECs have their own morphological features, and organ specificity must be considered when investigating interactions between ECs and other cell types constituting a target organ. Here we constructed angiogenesis-based microvascular networks with perivascular cells in a microfluidic device setting by coculturing ECs and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Furthermore, we analyzed endothelial barrier functions as well as fundamental morphology, an essential step to build an in vitro BBB model. In particular, we used both brain microvascular ECs (BMECs) and human umbilical vein ECs (HUVECs) to test if organ specificity of ECs affects the formation processes and endothelial barrier functions of an engineered microvascular network. We found that microvascular formation processes differed by the source of ECs. HUVECs formed more extensive microvascular networks compared to BMECs while no differences were observed between BMECs and HUVECs in terms of both the microvascular diameter and the number of pericytes peripherally associated with the microvasculatures. To compare the endothelial barrier functions of each type of EC, we performed fluorescence dextran perfusion on constructed microvasculatures. The permeability coefficient of BMEC microvasculatures was significantly lower than that of HUVEC microvasculatures. In addition, there were significant differences in terms of tight junction protein expression. These results suggest that the organ source of ECs influences the properties of engineered microvasculature and thus is a factor to be considered in the design of organ-specific cell culture models.

There is a great deal of demand for the construction of transplantable liver grafts. Over the last decade, decellularization techniques have been developed to construct whole liver tissue grafts as potential biomaterials. However, the lack of intact vascular networks, especially sinusoids, in recellularized liver scaffolds leads to hemorrhage and thrombosis after transplantation, which is a major obstacle to the development of transplantable liver grafts. In the present study, we hypothesized that both mechanical (e.g., fluid shear stress) and chemical factors (e.g., fibronectin coating) can enhance the formation of hierarchical vascular networks including sinusoid-scale microvessels. We demonstrated that perfusion culture promoted formation of sinusoid-scale microvessels in recellularized liver scaffolds, which was not observed in static culture. In particular, perfusion culture at 4.7 ml/min promoted the formation of sinusoid-scale microvessels compared to perfusion culture at 2.4 and 9.4 ml/min. In addition, well-aligned endothelium was observed in perfusion culture, suggesting that endothelial cells sensed the flow-induced shear stress. Moreover, fibronectin coating of decellularized liver scaffolds enhanced the formation of sinusoid-scale microvessels in perfusion culture at 4.7 ml/min. This study represents a critical step in the development of functional recellularized liver scaffolds, which can be used not only for transplantation but also for drug screening and disease-modeling studies. Statement of Significance: Decellularized liver scaffolds are promising biomaterials that allow production of large-scale tissue-engineered liver grafts. However, it is difficult to maintain recellularized liver grafts after transplantation due to hemorrhage and thrombosis. To overcome this obstacle, construction of an intact vascular network including sinusoid-scale microvessels is essential. In the present study, we succeeded in constructing sinusoid-scale microvessels in decellularized liver scaffolds via a combination of perfusion culture and surface coating. We further confirmed that endothelial cells in decellularized liver scaffolds responded to flow-derived mechanical stress by aligning actin filaments. Our strategy to construct sinusoid-scale microvessels is critical for the development of intact vascular networks, and addresses the limitations of recellularized liver scaffolds after transplantation.

Vascular networks consist of hierarchical structures of various diameters and are necessary for efficient blood distribution. Recent advances in vascular tissue engineering and bioprinting have allowed us to construct large vessels, such as arteries, small vessels, such as capillaries and microvessels, and intermediate-scale vessels, such as arterioles, individually. However, little is known about the control of vessel diameters between small vessels and intermediate-scale vessels. Here, we focus on vascular remodeling, which creates lasting structural changes in the vessel wall in response to hemodynamic stimuli, to regulate vessel diameters in vitro. The purpose of this study is to control the vessel diameter at an intermediate scale by inducing outward remodeling of microvessels in vitro. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells were cocultured in a microfluidic device to construct microvessels, which were then perfused with a culture medium to induce outward vascular remodeling. We successfully constructed vessels with diameters of 40-150 μm in perfusion culture, whereas vessels with diameters of <20 μm were maintained in static culture. We also revealed that the in vitro vascular remodeling was mediated by NO pathways and MMP-9. These findings provide insight into the regulation of diameters of tissue-engineered blood vessels. This is an important step toward the construction of hierarchical vascular networks within biofabricated three-dimensional systems.

In a proof-of-concept study, a mechano-chromic hydrogel was synthesized here, via chemoenzymatic click conjugation of fluorophore-labeled fibronectin into a synthetic hydrogel co-polymers (i.e., poly-N-isopropylacrylamide/polyethylene glycol). The optical FRET response could be tuned by macroscopic stretch.

Intimal hyperplasia (IH) represents a major challenge following cardiovascular interventions. While mechanisms are poorly understood, the inefficient preventive methods incentivize the search for novel therapies. A vessel-on-a-dish platform is presented, consisting of direct-contact cocultures with human primary endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) exposed to both laminar pulsatile and disturbed flow on an orbital shaker. With contractile SMCs sitting below a confluent EC layer, a model that successfully replicates the architecture of a quiescent vessel wall is created. In the novel IH model, ECs are seeded on synthetic SMCs at low density, mimicking reendothelization after vascular injury. Over 3 days of coculture, ECs transition from a network conformation to confluent 2D islands, as promoted by pulsatile flow, resulting in a “defected” EC monolayer. In defected regions, SMCs incorporated plasma fibronectin into fibers, increased proliferation, and formed multilayers, similarly to IH in vivo. These phenomena are inhibited under confluent EC layers, supporting therapeutic approaches that focus on endothelial regeneration rather than inhibiting proliferation, as illustrated in a proof-of-concept experiment with Paclitaxel. Thus, this in vitro system offers a new tool to study EC-SMC communication in IH pathophysiology, while providing an easy-to-use translational disease model platform for low-cost and high-content therapeutic development.