Release date: 2017-03-07
Everyone has been high hopes for 3D bioprinting of human organs, but one of the biggest obstacles in this area is the printing of a functioning vascular system. Fortunately, researchers at the University of California, San Diego recently developed a functional vascular network using 3D bioprinting technology and applied it to mice. Researchers say their work will speed up the birth of artificial organs and regenerative therapies.
Chen's laboratory-developed 3D printed vascular network can be safely combined with the body's own network to transport blood. This research has been published in the journal Biomaterials. Chen and his team used a homemade 3D printer to cure a solution containing living cells and photopolymers with UV light to form a specific 3D shape. This method can produce 3D microstructures that mimic biological tissue in a matter of seconds, and has also been used to create liver tissue and 3D printed miniature fish that can deliver drugs in human blood.
In addition to other light curing or DLP (Digital Light Processing) 3D printing technology, in addition to being fast, another advantage of this UV bioprinting method is that the photopolymer used in the biological solution is very cheap, although it is completely Biocompatibility.
Using this technique, the researchers used a 3D model of a human vascular network to print a structure containing endothelial cells (endothelial cells are cells that form the inner blood vessels of the human body). Although only 4 mm x 5 mm x 600 μm in size, after cultivating some of these 3D printed structures, the researchers transplanted these imitation vascular networks onto the skin wounds of live mice. Two weeks later, these artificial vasculatures have grown together with the mouse's own vascular network and are capable of transporting blood to mice normally.
It has to be said that this is a huge improvement, but there is still much work to be done to apply this technology to the human body. For example, the real vascular system not only transports blood, but also transports nutrients, oxygen and waste. Next, the researchers will use skin stem cells to build tissues that can be used to help those patients whose transplants are rejected by the autoimmune system.
The main goal of researchers at the University of California, San Diego is to enter the clinical trial phase, although achieving this "at least a few more years."
Source: Tiangongshe
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