Abstract
The development of science and technology often drew lessons from natural phenomena. Herein, inspired by drying‐driven curling of apple peels, hydrogel‐based micro‐scaled hollow tubules (MHTs) are proposed for biomimicking microvessels, which promote microcirculation and improve the survival of random skin flaps. MHTs with various pipeline structures are fabricated using hydrogel in corresponding shapes, such as Y‐branches, anastomosis rings, and triangle loops. Adjustable diameters can be achieved by altering the concentration and cross‐linking time of the hydrogel. Based on this rationale, biomimetic microvessels with diameters of 50–500 µm are cultivated in vitro by coculture of MHTs and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In vivo studies show their excellent performance to promote microcirculation and improve the survival of random skin flaps. In conclusion, the present work proposes and validifies a biomimetic 3D self‐forming method for the fabrication of biomimetic vessels and microvascular scaffolds with high biocompatibility and stability based on hydrogel materials, such as gelatin and hyaluronic acid.
Highlights
The development of science and technology often drew lessons from reported secondary molding of liquid crystalline elastomer to form a 3D structure natural phenomena
Overall, inspired by curling phenomenon of apple peels, we developed a facile method to fabricate biomimetic microvessel scaffold based on hydrogels with high accuracy, controllability, and handleability, which is a promising solution to the tough question of early forming of microvessel in the practice of tissue engineering
While previous studies demonstrated that the swelling ratio of electrospun gelatin methacrylamide (GelMA) fibrous mats could reach 600%,[6] the hydrogel flake prepared in our study showed a swelling ratio of ≈400%
Summary
The development of science and technology often drew lessons from reported secondary molding of liquid crystalline elastomer to form a 3D structure natural phenomena.
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