Fig. 5.

Implantation of static-stretched and control scaffolds in the mouse abdominal muscle. Scaffolds were implanted on day 8 postseeding. Two weeks thereafter, rhodamine-dextran was injected through the mouse tail vein to view functional vessels. (A, I) Fluorescence imaging of HUVEC-GFP cells and of rhodamine-dextran in the retrieved scaffolds. Scaffold area is marked in yellow. (II) A larger magnification of the retrieved scaffolds, showing a connection between the implanted and the host vascular network, as well as functional implanted vessel-like structures. (III) Histological staining of frozen sections of the retrieved scaffold. Green, HUVEC-GFP; red, mouse vessels stained with anti-CD31 antibody; blue, DAPI for nucleic staining. (Scale bar: III, 50 µm.) (B) Orientation analysis of vessel-like structures 2 wk postimplantation. Objects from static-stretched scaffolds preserved their orientation in the zero direction, compared with the control scaffold, where no dominant direction was observed. (C) The mean length of functional implanted vessel-like structures.