Pre-screening the intrinsic angiogenic capacity of biomaterials in an optimised <i>ex ovo</i> chorioallantoic membrane model

Abstract

Biomaterial development for clinical applications is currently on the rise. This necessitates adequate <i>in vitro</i> testing, where the structure and composition of biomaterials must be specifically tailored to withstand <i>in situ</i> repair and regeneration responses for a successful clinical outcome. The chorioallantoic membrane of chicken embryos has been previously used to study angiogenesis, a prerequisite for most tissue repair and regeneration. In this study, we report an optimised <i>ex ovo</i> method using a glass-cling film set-up that yields increased embryo survival rates and has an improved protocol for harvesting biomaterials. Furthermore, we used this method to examine the intrinsic angiogenic capacity of a variety of biomaterials categorised as natural, synthetic, natural/synthetic and natural/natural composites with varying porosities. We detected significant differences in biomaterials' angiogenesis with natural polymers and polymers with a high overall porosity showing a greater vascularisation compared to synthetic polymers. Therefore, our proposed <i>ex ovo</i> chorioallantoic membrane method can be effectively used to pre-screen biomaterials intended for clinical application.