London, Jan 14 (PTI) Scientists have developed a way to3D print soft biological structures, which could be used tobuild life-like models of the brain and lungs.
Being able to match the structure and softness of bodytissues means that these structures could be used in medicalprocedures to form scaffolds that can act as a template fortissue regeneration, where damaged tissues are encouraged toregrow.
Regenerating damaged tissue by 'seeding' porous scaffoldswith cells and encouraging them to grow allows the body toheal without the issues that normally affect tissue-replacingtransplant procedures, such as rejection by the body.
The use of scaffolds is becoming more common and variedin its applications, but the new technique creates super-softscaffolds that are like the softest tissues in the human bodyand could help to promote this regeneration.
In particular, there might be future potential in seedingneuronal cells; those involved in the brain and spinal cord.
Researchers from Imperial College London (ICL) in the UKtested the 3D-printed structures by seeding them with dermalfibroblast cells, which generate connective tissue in theskin, and found that there was successful attachment andsurvival.
This success, alongside previous research, could lead tofurther possibilities around the growth of stem cells, whichis medically exciting due to their ability to change intodifferent types of cells.
The technique could also be used to create replica bodyparts or even whole organs. These could help scientists carryout experiments not possible on live subjects.
They could even be used to help with medical training,replacing the need for animal bodies to practice surgery on.
"At the moment we have created structures a fewcentimetres in size, but ideally we'd like to create a replicaof a whole organ using this technique," said Zhengchu Tan,from ICL.
The technique uses solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) torapidly cool a hydrogel ink as it is extruded from a 3Dprinter.
After being thawed, the gel formed is as soft as bodytissues, but does not collapse under its own weight, which hasbeen a problem for similar techniques in the past.
"Cryogenics is the novel aspect of this technology – ituses the phase change between liquid and solid to triggerpolymerisation and create super soft objects that can holdtheir shape. This means that the technology has a wide varietyof possible uses," said Antonio Elia Forte from ICL. PTI MHNMHN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.