Bioreactive composite scaffold design for improved vascular connexion of tissue- engineered products

General Information

Engineered tissues today in most cases lack of appropriate connexion to the vascular system of the surrounding tissue in the body at the implantation site. Hence the tissues suffer from malnutrition and low gas exchange leading to necrosis. The strategic objective of this project is to develop a novel three-dimensional scaffold structure for improved vascularisation of tissue-engineered products. Application of intelligent biomaterials (bioresorbable stimuli-sensitive polymers) and incorporation of bioactive substances (e.g. growth factors) will enhance a structured vascularisation of tissue-engineered constructs by gradually opening inserted microchannels for vessel ingrowth into cell-seeded polymeric scaffolds. In our approach stimuli-sensitive materials which are available will be tested for their application as switching filaments to open microchannels and guide cells involved in vascularisation and/or provide a gradient for directed cell migration and growth. The composite scaffold giving rise to evolving vessels is intended to allow the vascular connexion to the surrounding tissue in the course of wound healing.
The complex bunch of requirements for a functional vascularisation of tissue-engineered products calls for a strong inter- and transdisciplinary co-operation of chemists, biologists, engineers, physicists and physicians depending on a pronounced cross-frontier collaboration.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	FP6-2003-NMP-1, 3.4.2.2, Technologies associated with the production, transformation and processing of knowledge-based multifunctional materials and biomaterials
Project Type	STREP
Contract Number	NMP3-CT-2005-013811
Co-ordinator	Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon (DE)

Total Eligible Costs (€)	Hereon Eligible Costs (€)	EC Funding for Hereon (€)
3.160.760	1.032.760	550.000

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Laura Schwabe, Research Funding Department, phone: +49 (0)4152 87-1670 E-mail contact

Participants

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) (DE), Karolinska Institutet Stockholm (SE), Semmelweis University Budapest (HU), Universidad di Santiago de Compostela (ES), University of Nottingham (UK)

Last Update: 10. January 2022