Thousands of people die each year due to a lack of organs for transplantation, but soon you may just walk into a hospital and have a full organ printed simply by clicking the 'print' button on your computer screen.
In a giant leap towards the goal of 'bio-printing' transplantable tissues and organs, scientists have now bio-printed artificial vascular networks mimicking the body's circulatory system that are necessary for growing large complex tissues.
"At the moment, we are pretty much printing 'prototypes' that, as we improve, will eventually be used to change the way we treat patients worldwide," said Luiz Bertassoni from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Cells need ready access to nutrients, oxygen and an effective 'waste disposal' system to sustain life. This is why 'vascularisation' - a functional transportation system - is central to the engineering of biological tissues and organs.
"One of the greatest challenges to the engineering of large tissues and organs is growing a network of blood vessels and capillaries," Bertassoni explained.
"Cells die without an adequate blood supply because blood supplies oxygen that's necessary for cells to grow and perform a range of functions in the body," he added.
Using a high-tech 'bio-printer', the researchers fabricated a multitude of interconnected tiny fibres to serve as the mold for the artificial blood vessels.
They then covered the 3D printed structure with a cell-rich protein-based material, which was solidified by applying light to it.
Lastly they removed the bio-printed fibres to leave behind a network of tiny channels coated with human endothelial cells, which self organised to form stable blood capillaries in less than a week.
The study revealed that the bioprinted vascular networks promoted significantly better cell survival, differentiation and proliferation compared to cells that received no nutrient supply.
The study appeared in the journal Lab on a Chip.
