| Chronic kidney disease affects millions of people, but there are few suitable long-term treatment options available to patients. Allogenic kidney transplantation is considered curative, but there are far too few donated kidneys to meet the demand. One possible solution is to engineer renal tissue in the lab that can be used to augment the function of failing kidneys. Human primary renal cells have been shown to form tubule-like structures in 3D collagen hydrogel culture. But these hydrogel constructs are too small to be useful and lack the necessary vascular components. To move forward these renal constructs must be pre-vascularized. The basis for this work is the development of a novel, biomimetic pre-vascularization strategy. We have demonstrated the creation of collagen vascular scaffolds molded off of polycaprolactone vascular corrosion casts of normal renal tissue. These novel vascular scaffolds can be endothelialized and incorporated into the existing renal hydrogel constructs. The vascular scaffolds support renal cell development and improve renal cell viability in larger constructs. Additionally, pre-vascularized renal constructs have been implanted into renal cortical defects in rats to evaluate integration and renal structure formation in vivo. |
