A Short Overview of 3-D Printing in Tissue Engineering
Posted: August 18, 2013 at 2:55 am
Technologies derived from rapid prototyping and 3-D printing will likely play an important role in the future of tissue engineering, just as they are coming to do in many fields:
The field of tissue engineering has deployed several fabrication strategies aimed at bringing cells and structure together to generate tissue. Biomaterial scaffolding - which provides structural support and can be formed into biologically relevant shapes - has been combined with cells to generate hybrid 3-D structures for use as tissue surrogates in vitro and in vivo. Protocols have been developed that enable removal of living cells from native tissues, leaving only a natural scaffolding of extracellular matrix, which can then be re-seeded with cells to reconstruct or partially reconstruct 3-D tissues. Another approach to soft tissue reconstruction has been the development of cell-laden hydrogels, which are often cast into a specific shape and placed into a permissive environment in vitro or in vivo that allows maturation and establishment of tissue-specific characteristics. In recent years, with the advancement of 3-D printing technologies for the on-demand fabrication of complex polymer-based objects, efforts have been underway to adapt 3-D printing technologies and engineer bioprinting instruments that can leverage similar 3-D replication concepts and accommodate the incorporation of living cells.
Organovo's NovoGen MMX Bioprinter precisely dispenses "bio-ink" - tiny building blocks composed of living cells - generating tissues layer-by-layer according to user-defined designs. Built for flexibility, the bioprinter enables fabrication of tissues with a wide array of cellular compositions and geometries; side-by-side comparison of multiple tissue prototypes facilitates optimization and selection of specific designs geared toward a particular application. Working within the confines of an object library, bio-ink building blocks of various shapes, sizes and compositions are assembled into architectures that recapitulate the form of native tissue. Tubes, layered sheets and patterned structures have been bioprinted, yielding 3-D tissues that are free of biomaterial scaffolding and characterized by tissue-like microarchitecture, including the development of intercellular junctions and endothelial networks.
In the short-term, 3-D human tissues are being deployed in the laboratory setting as models of human physiology and pathology; cell-based assays are a mainstay of the drug discovery and development process, and multicellular/multitissue systems may serve as more predictive indicators of clinical outcomes. Longer-term applications of 3-D tissue technologies will extend our knowledge of how to build the smallest functional units of a tissue to the fabrication of larger-scale tissues useful for surgical grafts to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs in the body. What are the next steps in the evolution of bioprinting? The first step is scaling up and down - increasing the resolution of specific features while advancing fabrication hardware and techniques to produce larger-scale tissues. The next, enhancing the complexity of designs - building the tool set that enables conceptual or visual inputs to be translated rapidly to executable bioprinting programs that select from a library of bio-ink building blocks to translate the vision into reality.
Link: http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2013/08/3-d-printing-life-science-applications
- Grand Traverse Co. Health Department Seeks Volunteers for Hagerty Center Vaccination Clinics - 9&10 News - January 20th, 2021
- How to live longer: Should you skip breakfast to promote longevity? Doctor weighs in - Express - December 28th, 2020
- China Long Avoided Talking About Mental Health. Then Covid Hit. - The New York Times - December 22nd, 2020
- With fitness centers shut down due to COVID-19, home gyms are on the rise - SW News Media - December 10th, 2020
- Review: Equinox Takes Luxe Fitness Into The Wild at Their First Outdoor Gym in LA - InsideHook - September 30th, 2020
- Colorados fitness industry starting to reawaken, but some studios will never reopen - Loveland Reporter-Herald - June 16th, 2020
- In sickness and in health: North Spokane couple weds in front yard during pandemic - The Spokesman-Review - May 18th, 2020
- Furry Friends Provide Big Benefits - June 20th, 2018
- CT Nutrition Consultants - Registered Dietitian - July 12th, 2017
- Channel Update - Fitness & Football Videos Only! - Video - August 10th, 2014
- Measuring the Impact of Cytomegalovirus in Younger People - September 1st, 2013
- Decreased mTOR Expression Provides 20% Mean Life Span Extension in Mice - September 1st, 2013
- A Collagen Patch to Spur Heart Tissue Repair - September 1st, 2013
- Statin Use Correlates With Higher Telomerase Activity - September 1st, 2013
- Children of Long-Lived Parents Have Better Immune Systems - September 1st, 2013
- A Two-Part Report on Global Futures 2045 - August 25th, 2013
- The Next Few Years of Research Into Alzheimer's Disease - August 25th, 2013
- A Look Back at Some of the Roots of Modern Thought on Radical Life Extension - August 25th, 2013
- Damaging the Biology of Mice to Make them Age More Rapidly Often Tells Us Little of Use - August 25th, 2013
- Calorie Restriction as a Means to Augment Cancer Therapies - August 25th, 2013
- Life Without Ageing: Aubrey de Grey and Tom Kirkwood to Debate Longevity Science at the British Science Festival - August 18th, 2013
- Another Way to Improve Memory in Old Mice - August 18th, 2013
- SENS Research Foundation Releases 2013 Research Report - August 18th, 2013
- Targeting Redox Biology to Reverse Mitochondrial Dysfunction - August 18th, 2013
- The Cost of Living Longer, Even in Good Health - August 11th, 2013
- Signs of Progress: Insurers Talk of Radical Life Extension - August 11th, 2013
- The Current State of Knowledge of Genetics and Longevity - August 11th, 2013
- A Video Tour of Alcor and Interview With Max More - August 11th, 2013
- And Now For Something Reprehensible - August 11th, 2013
- Opposing the Argument that Increased Longevity Will Slow Progress, and is Therefore Undesirable - August 4th, 2013
- Considering State Opposition to Life Extension Technologies - August 4th, 2013
- Steps Towards a Tissue Engineered Thymus - August 4th, 2013
- The Intersection of Kickstarter-Style Fundraising for Research and Distributed Development in Complex Problems - August 4th, 2013
- The Cost of Being Tall is a Shorter Life Expectancy - August 4th, 2013
- A Little Methionine Restriction Research - June 16th, 2013
- Calorie Restriction Versus Resveratrol Treatment - June 16th, 2013
- Reviewing the Literature on Calorie Restriction and Oxidative Stress - June 16th, 2013
- Arguing By Induction For an Absence of Boredom in an Ageless, Greatly Extended Healthy Life - June 16th, 2013
- Investigating Fingertip Regeneration in Mammals - June 16th, 2013
- The Incentives Associated With Becoming a Machine Entity - June 9th, 2013
- A Good Scientific Polemic on Aging - June 9th, 2013
- Quantifying Neurogenesis in Adult Humans - June 9th, 2013
- Considering the Details of Replacing the Brain - June 9th, 2013
- Overreacting in the Direction of Doing Nothing - June 9th, 2013
- Considering the Regenerative Signals Emitted by Transplanted Stem Cells - June 2nd, 2013
- A Bioprosthetic Heart - June 2nd, 2013
- Exercise Versus Peripheral Artery Disease - June 2nd, 2013
- Bracketed by Billionaires - June 2nd, 2013
- Stem Cell Transplants for Leukemia Showing Improved Outcomes - June 2nd, 2013
- Videos from the SENS Research Foundation Evidence Studios Event in December 2012 - May 26th, 2013
- Early Mortality Rates Predict Late Mortality Rates - May 26th, 2013
- Decellularization May Enable Use of More Donor Organs - May 26th, 2013
- Mitochondrially Targeted Antioxidant SS-31 Reverses Some Measures of Aging in Muscle - May 26th, 2013
- Arguing for the Role of Nuclear DNA Damage in Aging - May 26th, 2013
- Reviewing the Results of Calorie Restriction Primate Studies - May 19th, 2013
- A Possible Biomarker for Senescent Cells - May 19th, 2013
- Inhibiting ICMT as a Progeria Therapy - May 19th, 2013
- Are the Most Influential Futurists Those Who Put in the Work to Make Their Visions Real? - May 19th, 2013
- Excess Body Fat Hardens Arteries - May 19th, 2013
- Comments on Rapamycin and Metformin - May 12th, 2013
- The Present State of Artificial Retinas - May 12th, 2013
- The State of Electromechanical and Bioartifical Organs - May 12th, 2013
- Parabiosis Points to GDF-11 as a Means to Reverse Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy - May 12th, 2013
- Insights into Inflammaging - May 12th, 2013
- A Different Take on NF-?B and the Hypothalamus - May 5th, 2013
- T-Regulatory Cells More Numerous in the Aged Immune System - May 5th, 2013
- HMGA1 as a Potential Common Mechanism in Cancer - May 5th, 2013
- Recent Research Results from the Study of Naked Mole Rats - May 5th, 2013
- A Skeptical View of Mitochondrial DNA Damage and Aging - May 5th, 2013
- Recent Calorie Restriction Research - April 28th, 2013
- Joining the Dots in Genetic Parkinson's Disease - April 28th, 2013
- Considering the Electron Transport Chain in Aging - April 28th, 2013
- More Data on Granulocyte Transplant Cancer Therapies - April 28th, 2013
- Measures of Mitochondrial DNA Damage Lower in Long-Lived Mice - April 28th, 2013
- Aubrey de Grey on "The Undoing of Aging" - April 21st, 2013
- Mitochondrial Functional Mutations and Worm Longevity - April 21st, 2013
- Indy Mutations and Fly Longevity - April 21st, 2013
- Further Research on BubR1, Cellular Senescence, and Aging - April 21st, 2013
- Sterilized Dogs Live Longer - April 21st, 2013
- Robust Cancer Therapies Will Mean a Greater Use of Aggressive Stem Cell Therapies - April 14th, 2013