Artificial vascularised scaffolds for 3D-tissue regeneration – a perspective of the ArtiVasc 3D Project

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the ArtiVasc 3D project and its findings. Vascularization is one of the most important and highly challenging issues in the development of soft tissue. It is necessary to supply cells with nutrition within a multilayer tissue, for example in artificial skin. Research on artificial skin is driven by an increasing demand for two main applications. Firstly, for the field of regenerative medicine, the aim is to provide patients with implants or grafts to replace damaged soft tissue after traumatic injuries or ablation surgery. Secondly, another aim is to substitute expensive and ethically disputed pharmaceutical tests on animals by providing artificial vascularized test beds to simulate the effect of pharmaceuticals into the blood through the skin. This paper provides a perspective on ArtiVasc 3D, a major European Commission funded project that explored the development of a full thickness, vascularized artificial skin. The paper provides an overview of the aims and objectives of the project and describes the work packages and partners involved. The most significant results of the project are summarized and a discussion of the overall success and remaining work is given. We also provide the journal papers resulting from the project.