Human Endothelial Cells Isolated from an Adult Vein Form Vessel Networks within Engineered Muscle Grafts

Current treatment options for the loss of large masses of muscle tissue are limited and one promising solution is the use of engineered muscle grafts. Since the skeletal muscle tissue is a thick tissue with a high oxygen demand, vascularization is a fundamental concern. Vascularization can be achieved by populating the engineered tissue with endothelial cells (EC) which can form organized vessel networks while cultured in the lab and integrate with the host blood vessels upon implantation. In this study we constructed vascularized muscle grafts by seeding different combination of cells on Poly lactic acid (PLLA) /Poly lactic co glycolic acid (PLGA) scaffolds. We evaluated different culture combinations using adult and young EC and adult and young fibroblasts or smooth muscle cells (SMC). In our experiment settings, human EC isolated from an adult vein created a more complex vessel network in a shorter period of time compared to EC isolated from umbilical vein. These results are very promising and can lead to the construction of optimal engineered autologous muscle grafts that can be used in the clinic.