Printing Complex Tissues
UCLA engineers have built a 3-D printer that does stereolithography using four different hydrogels. The machine has two components: a custom-built microfluidic chip and a digital micromirror (which reflects light onto the printing suface in the outline of the shapes being printed. The light also changes the bonds so the gels become hardened, layer by layer. “The researchers first used the process to make simple shapes, such as pyramids. Then, they made complex 3D structures that mimicked parts of muscle tissue and muscle-skeleton connective tissues. They also printed shapes mimicking tumors with networks of blood vessels, which could be used as biological models to study cancers. They tested the printed structures by implanting them in rats. The structures were not rejected.” While this experiment only involved four bioinks, any number are conceivably possible. MORE
Image Credit: Amir Miri, UCLA