June 9, 2021 by

In the beginning ...there was a sprout

Growing mini blood vessels in a cell culture dish

In this part of the project, I am imaging the sprouting behavior of endothelial cells, which are the cells that make up the walls of blood vessels.

During sprouting, a single cell protrudes out from the existing vessel and forms a new branch, like a bifurcation of a tree. This process can be seen in a cell culture dish simply by embedding a cluster of endothelial cells in a gel, adding some growth factors to promote branching, aaaaand waiting. Voila, mini blood vessels!