Autonomous Vascular Homeostasis: A Physical-AI Framework for Maturation, Self-Maintenance, and Thresholded Rescue

Abstract

Successful vascular formation is not equivalent to mature autonomous function. Engineered vessels may remain dependent on continuous growth factors, external flow schedules, or active rescue. This Version 3 proposal defines autonomous vascular homeostasis as the capacity of a mature vascular network to preserve perfusion, oxygen support, barrier function, and topology—and to recover from bounded local disturbances—after developmental support has been withdrawn. A developed-support field is used temporarily to promote maturation, physiological flow adaptation, endothelial quiescence, junction integrity, basement-membrane development, and mural-cell support. Nonessential external support is then progressively reduced. The first response after maturation is observation, not rescue. Small disturbances are deliberately left to the vascular network’s intrinsic regulatory and repair processes. Only when a spatially confirmed defect exceeds a preregistered autonomy boundary may a rescue-demand field activate. Rescue first supports preservation and repair of the existing route. Limited collateral or bypass growth is permitted only after intrinsic and assisted local repair fail. After durable recovery, rescue is withdrawn and the network is tested again for independent stability. Physical AI acts as a maturation assessor and safety supervisor rather than a permanent caretaker. The proposed experiment compares continuous support, staged withdrawal, observation-only disturbance testing, immediate rescue, thresholded rescue, repair-first conditional rerouting, sham-boundary feedback, and repeated-defect challenges. The primary hypothesis is that staged support withdrawal will produce vascular networks that retain function and self-repair bounded disturbances with less external intervention than continuously supported networks. Autonomous refers to biological homeostasis and self-repair, not consciousness or independent intention. This is an open, falsifiable, and unvalidated preclinical research hypothesis. It is not a clinical treatment, medical advice, surgical or manufacturing protocol, proof of safety or efficacy, world-first claim, or patentability claim.