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Angiogenesis as a key for tissue engineering

The German Research Foundation is to fund a research priority of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Centre. Researchers around the world working in the area of regenerative medicine are all equally hopeful of generating tissue replacements using modern tissue engineering. The development of tissue cells on carrier materials seems quite promising. However, tissue-engineered implants are often rejected by patients due to the lack of angiogenesis.

The Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery at the Freiburg University Medical Centre has been focusing on this problem for more than ten years. The researchers from Freiburg use, amongst other cells and factors, vascular wall precursor cells, biochemical growth factors and gene therapy in order to induce the formation of a blood vessel network in constructed tissue.

A chicken egg model developed for this particular purpose at the Freiburg University Medical Centre, which involves a vessel-rich membrane in a fertilised chicken egg, now enables the systematic investigation of living tissue structures without the need to carry out animal experiments.

The photo shows a chicken egg model used to examine vascularistion in tissue engineering.
Chicken egg model used in tissue engineering to investigate vascularisation. © Freiburg University Medical Centre
Photo of a vessel-rich membrane in a fertilised chicken egg
Vessel-rich membrane in a fertilised chicken egg © Freiburg University Medical Centre

Dr. Nestor Torio-Padron's project at the Tissue Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery once again receives funding through the German Research Foundation (DFG). The DFG will provide around 300,000 euros for a period of two years to enable the researchers to use different models to examine how the formation of new blood vessels can be stimulated by combining fatty tissue precursor cells with blood-vessel forming cells.

Further information:
Dr. Nestor Torio-Padron
Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery
Tel.: +49 (0)761/270-2401
Fax.: +49 (0)761 / 270 -2501
E-mail: nestor.torio.padron(at)uniklinik-freiburg.de

Website address: https://www.gesundheitsindustrie-bw.de/en/article/press-release/angiogenesis-as-a-key-for-tissue-engineering