Electrical stimulation directs formation of perfused vasculature in engineered tissues

Abstract

Effective, rapid and functionally perfusable vascularization remains a major challenge in tissue engineering. Current approaches to generate vasculature in vitro require multipart fabrication methods or complex and costly media supplements, limiting their scalability. Here, we demonstrate that exogenous electrical stimulation (estim) offers a promising alternative by enhancing 3D vasculogenesis in engineered human tissues. Exposing 3D endothelial-fibroblast cocultures to pulsed estim promoted the formation of dense and branched vascular networks. In a microfluidic device model, we show that estim induces the formation of an interconnected vascular network that can be perfused, whereas unstimulated control networks remained less mature. Importantly, we demonstrate that upon implantation, estim-pretreated vascular grafts exhibit elevated anastomosis with host and perfusion with blood relative to the untreated grafts. In addition, we use estim to promote engraftment of a vascularized 3D liver construct. Mechanistically, we find that estim induces membrane hyperpolarization in endothelial cells via voltage-gated potassium (KV) channels. Inhibiting KV channels abrogated estims pro-vasculogenic effects in endothelial cells. Conversely, pharmacologically activating hyperpolarization induced endothelial responses even without estim, directly linking KV channel-mediated hyperpolarization as a key mechanism by which estim drives vascular assembly and function. Ultimately, our work establishes estim as a new orthogonal approach to promote formation of perfusable vasculature in engineered tissues.