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Peripheral artery disease is an atherosclerotic disease associated with limb ischemia that necessitates limb amputation in severe cases. Cell therapies comprised of adult mononuclear or stromal cells have been clinically tested and show moderate benefits. Bioengineering strategies can be applied to modify cell behavior and function in a controllable fashion. Using mechanically tunable or spatially controllable biomaterials, we highlight examples in which biomaterials can increase the survival and function of the transplanted cells to improve their revascularization efficacy in preclinical models. Biomaterials can be used in conjunction with soluble factors or genetic approaches to further modulate the behavior of transplanted cells and the locally implanted tissue environment in vivo. We critically assess the advances in bioengineering strategies such as 3-dimensional bioprinting and immunomodulatory biomaterials that can be applied to the treatment of peripheral artery disease and then discuss the current challenges and future directions in the implementation of bioengineering strategies., Competing Interests: Disclosures T.S. Zaitseva and M.V. Paukshto are employees of Fibralign Corporation that manufactures a nanopatterned collagen medical device. The other authors report no conflicts.

Secondary lymphedema is a common condition among cancer survivors, and treatment strategies to prevent or treat lymphedema are in high demand. The development of novel strategies to diagnose or treat lymphedema would benefit from a robust experimental animal model of secondary lymphedema. The purpose of this methods paper is to describe and summarize our experience in developing and characterizing a rat hindlimb model of lymphedema. Here we describe a protocol to induce secondary lymphedema that takes advantage of micro computed tomography imaging for limb volume measurements and visualization of lymph drainage with near infrared imaging. To demonstrate the utility of this preclinical model for studying the therapeutic benefit of novel devices, we apply this animal model to test the efficacy of a biomaterials-based implantable medical device., Competing Interests: TZ, PT and MP are employees of Fibralign Corporation that manufactures the BioBridge medical device. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest, (© 2023 Nguyen, Dionysiou, Zaitseva, Zhou, Sue, Deptula, Moroz, Tabada, Rockson, Paukshto, Cheng and Huang.)