Boston, MA ― Rebecca Robbins reports on STAT that there is plenty of excitement around the promise of machines that can spit out living cells patterned to create three-dimensional biological structures.
But the dream of functional 3-D-printed tissue and organs has long been stymied by a stubborn central challenge: how to get blood to flow to keep the cells alive.
Now, Robbins reports, a team of researchers at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina has made the latest contribution to solving the puzzle, though their findings are still a long way away from helping patients.
But the dream of functional 3-D-printed tissue and organs has long been stymied by a stubborn central challenge: how to get blood to flow to keep the cells alive.
Now, Robbins reports, a team of researchers at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina has made the latest contribution to solving the puzzle, though their findings are still a long way away from helping patients.
The researchers devised a printing method that allowed them to fabricate bone, muscle, and cartilage tissues threaded with tiny channels where blood vessels developed when implanted in mice and rats.
Most strikingly, this method worked with cartilage tissue the size and shape of a human baby’s ear, a structure much larger than would have been possible to sustain without blood flow.
“You’re basically creating a vascular network with a printer,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He and his colleagues reported the findings Monday in Nature Biotechnology.
To access Robbins’ full — fascinating — STAT story, click here.
Follow Rebecca Robins on Twitter @rebeccadrobbins.
Follow STAT — which reports from the frontiers of health and medicine — on Twitter @statnews.
Most strikingly, this method worked with cartilage tissue the size and shape of a human baby’s ear, a structure much larger than would have been possible to sustain without blood flow.
“You’re basically creating a vascular network with a printer,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He and his colleagues reported the findings Monday in Nature Biotechnology.
To access Robbins’ full — fascinating — STAT story, click here.
Follow Rebecca Robins on Twitter @rebeccadrobbins.
Follow STAT — which reports from the frontiers of health and medicine — on Twitter @statnews.
