Revolutionizing tissue engineering: Can isolated microvessel fragments offer a key to functional tissue vascularization? This review examines the application of isolated fragments of intact microvessels in various vascularization strategies. Microvasculature is essential in the tissues of the body. Native structures of the microvasculature include multiple cell types precisely assembled into individual vessel segments and networks. This makes it challenging to incorporate a functional microvasculature in assembled or fabricated tissues. Isolated fragments of intact microvessels, which retain the cellular composition and structures of native microvessels, are proving effective in a variety of vascularization applications including tissue in-vitro disease modeling, vascular biology, mechanistic discovery, and tissue prevascularization in regenerative therapeutics and grafting. The successful vascularization applications of isolated microvessels are shown. The study emphasizes the importance of maintaining native tissue biology and outlines successful vascularization applications of isolated microvessels, suggesting promising avenues for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
Published in Microcirculation, a journal focused on the study of microcirculation and related topics, this review directly aligns with the journal's scope. The paper's discussion of isolated microvessel fragments and their applications in vascularization fits perfectly with the journal's focus on the structure and function of microvessels in various physiological and pathological conditions.