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

VASCUPLUG

Project timeline
Start:
April 2005
Duration:
42 months
End:
September 2008
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 AreaFP6-2003-NMP-1, 3.4.2.2, Technologies associated with the production, transformation and processing of knowledge-based multifunctional materials and biomaterials
Project TypeSTREP
Contract NumberNMP3-CT-2005-013811
Co-ordinatorHelmholtz Zentrum Hereon (DE)
Total Eligible Costs (€) Hereon Eligible Costs (€) EC Funding for Hereon (€)
3.160.7601.032.760550.000
Contact Person at Hereon Dr. Laura Schwabe, Research Funding Department, phone: +49 (0)4152 87-1670
E-mail contact
Worldwide Europe

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)

(completed September 2008)

Last Update: 10. January 2022