3D printing paper organs

Here’s a novel idea: create paper models of organs and tumors, complete with blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue, and then allow cells to populate the matrix.  The paper isn’t from old copies of the New England Journal of Medicine, but rather is made from bacterial cellulose. “To create a breast tumor model, the researchers 3D printed petroleum jelly-paraffin ink into a bacterial cellulose hydrogel. Then, they air-dried the hydrogel so that it became porous and paper-like. When they heated the ink, it liquefied and was easy to remove, leaving behind hollow microchannels. The team wet the paper “organ” and added endothelial cells — the cell type that lines blood vessels — to the microchannels, and added breast cancer cells to the rest of the structure. Dried paper organs can be stored for long periods of time and then rehydrated to produce inexpensive tissue models, which could be useful for drug screening and personalized medicine, the researchers say.”    MORE

Image Credit:  Alex Traksel/Shutterstock.com and ACS