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Strategies for the vascular patterning of engineered tissues for organ repair

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 9, pages 1007–1025 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The loss of organ function following traumatic injury is often irreversible and the demand for organ replacements continues to exceed supply. This discrepancy has driven the development of therapies and engineered tissues for the repair or replacement of damaged tissues. However, the survival of engineered tissues is constrained by the challenge of establishing a functional vasculature. Efforts have therefore focused on strategies that induce vascularization in tissue implants or stimulate vascular growth in recipients of the therapies. Here we discuss recent advances in vascular biology, biomaterials chemistry and 3D printing techniques for vascular patterning in engineered tissues. For tissue regeneration to be clinically viable, vascular formation must be guided across scales ranging from micrometres to millimetres through biological, chemical and physical approaches.

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Fig. 1: Methods for the development of vasculature.
Fig. 2: Biological mechanisms underlying sprouting and intussusceptive angiogenesis, and technological approaches to promote angiogenesis.
Fig. 3: Chemical methods for creating vascularizing biomaterials.
Fig. 4: Bioprinting.
Fig. 5: Challenges facing organ-scale bioprinting.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. S. Miller for guidance and helpful discussions. We acknowledge funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under agreement numbers FA8650-21-1-7119 and AWD00001596, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health under award number AY1AX000003, and Breakthrough T1D awards 3-SRA-2025-1640-S-B, 3-SRA-2022-1255-S-B, 3-SRA-2023-1398-S-B, 3-SRA-2021-1023-S-B and 3-SRA-2024-1564-S-B.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Kevin D. Janson, Siavash Parkhideh.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Kevin D. Janson, Siavash Parkhideh, Jeffrey D. Hartgerink & Omid Veiseh

  2. Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Joseph W. R. Swain & Jeffrey D. Hartgerink

  3. School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jessica D. Weaver

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  1. Kevin D. Janson
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  2. Siavash Parkhideh
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  3. Joseph W. R. Swain
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  6. Omid Veiseh
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Contributions

K.D.J. and S.P. contributed equally to researching, drafting and editing the majority of the paper and figures. J.W.R.S. researched and drafted numerous sections that discuss chemistry-based approaches for encouraging vascularization in vivo. J.D.W. provided valuable additions to the text and performed the final editing. J.D.H. and O.V. conceptualized the paper and supervised the writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omid Veiseh.

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Competing interests

J.D.W. is a co-founder of and holds equity in ImmunoShield Therapeutics. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Janson, K.D., Parkhideh, S., Swain, J.W.R. et al. Strategies for the vascular patterning of engineered tissues for organ repair. Nat. Biomed. Eng 9, 1007–1025 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-025-01420-w

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