"We developed a novel technique using some of the forces associated with an ultrasound field called acoustic radiation force to act on cells in a material to move them to different spatial locations," says Diane Dalecki, the Kevin J. Parker Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering and director of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound. "By changing the frequency of the sound fields, we can control the distance between how the cells are patterned. Depending on the patterning we use, we can create different types of blood vessel morphologies."

A team led by Dalecki and Denise Hocking, a professor of pharmacology and physiology and of biomedical engineering, have used the technique to engineer tissue with new blood vessel networks in vitro. In their recently published studies, they showed that acoustic patterning can also be used to produce new blood vessels directly in the body.

"Rather than making an engineered tissue product outside of the body and then implanting it, we would like to induce the formation of new blood vessels directly in the body," says Hocking. "Ultrasound has the ability to penetrate through tissue and is already used in many clinical applications, so why not try to produce new vessels locally?"

The first step of the project will be finding the ideal combinations of cells and hydrogels to best form new blood vessels. Rather than going through the long process of extracting stem cells from bone marrow, the team hopes to get the necessary host of cells from a patient's fat tissue.