Scientists Have Figured Out How to Create Blood Vessels in 3D Printed Organs

While 3D-Printed Organs Sound like a Great Idea -- Imagine No Longer Waiting around for a Transplant -- a Major Hurdle for Printing Internal Ones thus Far Have been Creating Intricate Blood Vessels and Ventricles that are Required for the Organ to actually, you Know, Work. Now, a Collaboration between Scientists from the University of Sydney, Harvard, Stanford and MIT Have Discovered a Way to do just that. The Team Used an Advanced Bioprinter to Create Tiny Interconnected Fibers and then Coated them in Human Endothelial Cells and a Protein-Based Material, which Hardens under Light. They then Removed the Fibers and Voilà -- a Network of Capillaries was Born. Lead Author and University of Sydney Researcher, Dr. Luiz Bertassoni, said: "While recreating little parts of tissues in the lab is something that we have already been able to do, the possibility of printing three-dimensional tissues with functional blood capillaries in the blink of an eye is a game changer".




Info Sources:

http://3dprint.com/7729/3d-print-organs-vascular

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/01/researchers-now-able-to-3d-print-working-blood-vessels

http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=1&newsstoryid=13715