3D Embedded Tubule Formation Kit

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting vessels.  As such, angiogenesis research is relevant in numerous contexts such as organ development, tissue repair, wound healing, and tumor progression.  At its most basic, it is a complex multistep physiological process that involves cell survival, proliferation, migration, extracellular matrix degradation, altering cell-cell adhesion, cellular differentiation, network formation, lumen formation, and pruning.  Due to the complexities, angiogenesis is difficult to study in a 2-dimensional in vitro system, which inherently lacks multiple aspects of the physiological angiogenic microenvironment.  ScienCell™’s 3-dimensional Embedded Tubule Formation Kit (3D-ETF) is an inclusive kit that utilizes purified collagen type I to mimic all the intricacies of the angiogenic process more closely, including the lumen formation step (see Figure 1 at end of protocol). Gels can be fixed and stained for quantitative assessment.