Targeting HIF-α for robust prevascularization of human cardiac organoids.

Prevascularized 3D microtissues have been shown to be an effective cell delivery vehicle for cardiac repair. To this end, our lab has explored the development of self-organizing, prevascularized human cardiac organoids by co-seeding human cardiomyocytes with cardiac fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and stromal cells into agarose microwells. We hypothesized that this prevascularization process is facilitated by the endogenous upregulation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway in the avascular 3D microtissues.