Formation of vessel-like channel using alginate fiber as a sacrificial structure

This research reports a method to fabricate a loop-shaped vessel-like channel for perfusion of culture medium in a cell-laden collagen gel. We used alginate fibers as sacrificial structures for construction of loop-shaped vessel-like channels. By integration of a loop-shaped alginate fiber with connection ports in a cell-laden collagen gel, we formed a tube-connectable loop-shaped channel. Finally, we seeded endothelial cells onto inner wall of the channel to fabricate vessel-like channel coated with endothelial cells. As a result, we achieved perfusion of culture medium via the loop-shaped vessel-like channel. We believe that this method will be useful for in vitro construction of three-dimensional (3D) tissues with complex-shaped vessel-like channels.