Human Umbilical Vein Cells

An article published last March in the journal Biofabrication and coauthored by Peter Wu, a professor of physics, ‘Development of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cell (HUVEC) and Human Umbilical Vein Smooth Muscle Cell (HUVSMC) Branch/Stem Structures on Hydrogel Layers via Biological Laser Printing (BioLP),’ has proven exceptionally popular among scholars, quickly receiving over 350 downloads.

Peter Wu, Professor of Physics, Material & Engineering

The study was conducted to examine how to more rapidly engineer tissue in order for the knowledge to benefit the medical community in the future. Professor Wu stated that “biological laser printing is only one of the two techniques that can place multiple cell types in any configuration with micrometer resolutions,” allowing him and his colleague, BR Ringeisen, to create the necessary tissue structures for this experiment. These two scientists made the groundbreaking discovery that human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and smooth muscles cells (HUVSC) seem to have a symbiotic relationship, meaning both types of cells must be present in order to maintain a manufactured vascular structure. As the article notes, their work is the “first step to creat[ing] an artificially guided self-assembled vascular network” and Wu and Ringeisen are currently attempting to create “more complex structures to further understand the relationship between HUVEC and HUVSMC” in order to one day impact medical procedures. Download article.