Dataset for: Generation of model tissues with dendritic vascular networks via sacrificial laser-sintered carbohydrate templates

Published in:
Nature Biomedical Engineering. doi: 10.1038/s41551-020-0566-1.

Generation of model tissues with dendritic vascular networks via sacrificial laser-sintered carbohydrate templates

Ian S. Kinstlinger (1), Sarah H. Saxton (2), Gisele A. Calderon (1), Karen Vasquez Ruiz (1), David R. Yalacki (1), Palvasha R. Deme (1), Jessica E. Rosenkrantz (3), Jesse D. Louis-Rosenberg (3), Fredrik Johansson (2), Kevin D. Janson (1), Daniel W. Sazer (1), Saarang S. Panchavati (1), Karl-Dimiter Bissig (4), Kelly R. Stevens (2,5), and Jordan S. Miller (1)

1 Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
2 Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
3 Nervous System, Palenville, NY, USA.
4 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
5 Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Sacrificial templates for patterning perfusable vascular networks in engineered tissues have been constrained in architectural complexity, owing to the limitations of extrusion-based 3D-printing techniques. Here we show that cell-laden hydrogels can be patterned with algorithmically generated dendritic vessel networks and other complex hierarchical networks by using sacrificial templates made from laser-sintered carbohydrate powders. We quantified and modulated gradients of cell proliferation and cell metabolism emerging as a result of fluid convection through these networks and of diffusion of oxygen and metabolites out of them. We also show scalable strategies for the fabrication, perfusion culture and volumetric analysis of large tissue-like constructs with complex and heterogeneous internal vascular architectures. Perfusable dendritic networks in cell-laden hydrogels may help sustain thick and densely cellularized engineered tissues, and assist interrogations of the interplay between mass transport and tissue function.