Laminin and hyaluronan supplementation of collagen hydrogels enhances endothelial function and tight junction expression on three-dimensional cylindrical microvessel-on-a-chip.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
; 724: 150234, 2024 Sep 10.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38865812
ABSTRACT
Vasculature-on-chip (VoC) models have become a prominent tool in the study of microvasculature functions because of their cost-effective and ethical production process. These models typically use a hydrogel in which the three-dimensional (3D) microvascular structure is embedded. Thus, VoCs are directly impacted by the physical and chemical cues of the supporting hydrogel. Endothelial cell (EC) response in VoCs is critical, especially in organ-specific vasculature models, in which ECs exhibit specific traits and behaviors that vary between organs. Many studies customize the stimuli ECs perceive in different ways; however, customizing the hydrogel composition accordingly to the target organ's extracellular matrix (ECM), which we believe has great potential, has been rarely investigated. We explored this approach to organ-specific VoCs by fabricating microvessels (MVs) with either human umbilical vein ECs or human brain microvascular ECs in a 3D cylindrical VoC using a collagen hydrogel alone or one supplemented with laminin and hyaluronan, components found in the brain ECM. We characterized the physical properties of these hydrogels and analyzed the barrier properties of the MVs. Barrier function and tight junction (ZO-1) expression improved with the addition of laminin and hyaluronan in the composite hydrogel.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Collagen
/
Laminin
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Tight Junctions
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Hydrogels
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Microvessels
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Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells
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Hyaluronic Acid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Year:
2024
Type:
Article