Abstract: Reducing Ambient Oxygen Tension Optimizes the Fabrication and Maturation of Pre-Vascularized Tissue Engineered Flaps

inTRoDuCTion: Oxygen is a potent modulator of cell function and wound repair in vivo. Hypoxia can enhance the production of specific extracellular matrix components and increase angiogenesis through the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 pathway. However, in vivo, very few cells within the body experience ambient (21%) oxygen tension. Thus, for clinically relevant tissue-engineered pre-vascularized skin flaps, hypoxic conditions can be exploited for promoting angiogenesis. We sought to identify the ideal oxygen tension in which to fabricate our novel, pre-vascularized tissue constructs containing a vascularized 1 mm diameter microchannel lined with human cells.