Artificial Organs May Finally Get a Blood Supply
Artificial tissue has always lacked a key ingredient: blood vessels. A new 3-D printing technique seems poised to change that.
Using a custom-built four-head 3-D printer and a “disappearing” ink, materials scientist Jennifer Lewisand her team created a patch of tissue containing skin cells and biological structural material interwoven with blood-vessel-like structures.Reported by the team in Advanced Materials, the tissue is the first made through 3-D printing to include potentially functional blood vessels embedded among multiple, patterned cell types.
