Abstract

Lung transplantation is an effective treatment for severe and end stage lung diseases. A readily available functional bioengineered lung from an autologous source is critical for lung transplantation. Previous studies have decellularized lungs and repopulated them with functional cell population, however, it failed due in large part to impaired formation of vascular compartment. Pulmonary vasculature not only exerts a physical barrier to separate blood and tissue but is a metabolically active barrier that controls exchange of gas, macromolecules, and immune cells and as such is very critical for lung tissue engineering. Many strategies including proper endothelial cell populations, seeding techniques and culture conditions have been optimized to achieve endothelial coverage of entire lung scaffold. In this article, strategies and challenges related to vascularized lung tissue engineering will be reviewed.