Mini organs are incomplete without blood vessels. To facilitate systematic studies and ensure meaningful comparisons with living organisms, a network of perfusable blood vessels and capillaries must be created — in a way that is precisely controllable and reproducible. A team has established a method using ultrashort laser pulses to create tiny blood vessels in a rapid and reproducible manner. Experiments show that these vessels behave just like those in living tissue. Liver lobules have been created on a chip with great success.
The team relied on advanced laser technology: with the help of ultrashort laser pulses in the femtosecond range, highly precise 3D structures can be written directly into the hydrogel — quickly and efficiently.
Using this approach, they were able to vascularize a liver model, developing a liver lobule-on-chip that incorporates a controlled 3D vascular network, closely mimicking the in vivo arrangement of the central vein and sinusoids. (Image credit: TU Wien)
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