Printing support hydrogels for creating vascular-like structures in stacked cell sheets

Vascular structures are essential for the survival of thick artificial three-dimensional (3D) tissues. However, it is difficult to create high-cell-density artificial tissue with vascular structures of a few hundred micrometers in diameter. Bioprinting technology can create artificial 3D tissues with vascular structures of a few hundred micrometers in diameter, but the cell density of bio-printed artificial 3D tissues is low. On the other hand, cell sheet technology can create high-cell-density artificial 3D tissues by stacking, but it is not possible to set small vascular structures at any place. In this study, we successfully demonstrated high-cell-density artificial 3D tissues with vascular-like structures by stacking cell sheets combined with bioprinting technology.