Epithelial Engineering: From Sheets to Branched Tubes

The epithelium is one of the major tissue types in the body, commonly arranged as either a single layer or multiple layers of cells. Construction of the basic structure and function of the epithelium begins during development, when populations of epithelial cells undergo dramatic changes in shape. This chapter introduces examples of epithelial morphogenesis that occur in nature which can provide useful insights into how epithelial tissues sculpt themselves into various shapes. The chapter also highlights engineering strategies that can be used to dissect the effects of the individual regulatory components by mimicking external environments and various stimuli during epithelial sheet migration, folding, tubulogenesis, and branching. The chapter describes current engineering approaches that were inspired from epithelial morphogenesis in vivo, and used to uncover additional processes involved in building various shapes of epithelial tissues.