A Bifurcated Vascular Channel Construction Method based on Diploic Vein Characteristics

In skull bone tissue engineering, cells do not easily survive and proliferate in the scaffold because of the lack of nutrient transport channels. To address these problems, a vascular design and fabrication method based on human skull diploic vein characteristics was proposed. The skull sample was scanned by micro-CT, and the 3D model was constructed by Avizo. By analyzing the characteristics of the diploic vein, the vascular centerline model, path model, taper model and bifurcation model were proposed. Two vascular network examples were constructed by iteration of the bifurcation unit. The mold method of constructing vascular scaffolds embedded within the bionic channels was proposed. The scaffold material is PDMS, and the surface was coated with collagen. The Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) were planted into the lumen of the channels for 7 days in vitro and found to be able to proliferate. The cells cultured for three days were fluorescently stained, and it was found that the cells were well attached to the surfaces of the lumen. This vascular design and fabrication process can lay a foundation for vascularization in bone tissue engineering.