Multi-cellular spheroids mimic the complex three-dimensional environment of natural tissues. Accordingly, they are also used as vascularization units in angiogenesis research and regenerative medicine. Spheroid sprouting assays are versatile in vitro models for the analysis of molecular and cellular determinants of blood vessel development, including different endothelial cell phenotypes, pro- and anti-angiogenic factors as well as cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions. In tissue engineering, spheroids serve in vivo as paracrine stimulators of angiogenesis and building blocks for the generation of prevascularized microtissues and branched vascular trees in macrotissues. Rapid progress in the automatized high-throughput production of spheroids currently provides the conditions for a widespread use of these applications in future drug discovery and bioengineering of functional organ substitutes.

多细胞球体模仿天然组织的复杂三维环境。因此，它们还被用作血管生成研究和再生医学中的血管生成单位。球体发芽测定是一种通用的体外模型，用于分析血管发育的分子和细胞决定因素，包括不同的内皮细胞表型，促血管生成因子和抗血管生成因子以及细胞基质和细胞间相互作用。在组织工程中，椭球体在体内充当血管生成的旁分泌刺激物，并在大组织中生成预血管化的微组织和分支的血管树。