Improving 3D Printing of Fine Structures in Artificial Tissue

The biggest challenge in tissue printing is the achievement of sufficient control over small scale structure to produce a vasculature that can supply the tissue as it develops. Without that capacity, tissue growth is limited to thin sheets and tiny organoids. Advances have been made in recent years, such as the work of Volumetric, but there is still a way to go before large tissue sections are regularly generated for use in medicine. This is in large part why work on decellularization continues to proceed apace, taking donor tissue and stripping the cells from it to leave the extracellular matrix structure, with all of its fine-scale detail and chemical cues to guide new, patient-matched cells into the correct locations and development activities. Bioprinting is based on 3D-printing technology, using cells and biopolymer to create biological structures and tissues. One of the most promising types of 3D-bioprinting is called digital light processing (DLP) bioprinting. Within this branch of 3D-bioprinting, progress has been impeded by practical and technical impediments. It has proven difficult to print tissues with high cell densities and finely resolved structures. DLP-based 3D bioprinting uses a digital micromirror device (DMD) to project a 2D cross-section of the 3D model to the photo-crosslinkable bioink. When exposed to light, the photocrosslinkable bioink, which can be either synthetic or natural, solidifies. Then, a motorized stage lifts up the bioink b...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs