Scientists Refine Technique to 'Print' Tissue and Organs

Need more tissue for a skin graft? How about an organ? Scientists have long sought to find out how best to create tissues that could replace a damaged organ. Now, scientists have further refined a technology that may be able to print cells and produce various tissue types.

Researchers are currently working on "printing" artificial tissue. The technology holds huge potential for organ transplants in the future. One technology in particular includes the creation of suitable bio-inks, something that scientists have now successfully made. These transparent liquids consist of components from the natural tissue matrix and living cells. Based on gelatin, which is derived from collagen, the liquid could, in theory, be used to "print" tissues.

The gelatin itself is a bit special. Scientists have chemically modified the gelling behavior of the gelatin to adapt the biological molecules for printing. Instead of gelling like unmodified gelatin, the bio-inks remain fluid during printing. Only after they're irradiated with UV light do they crosslink and cure to form hydrogels.

"We are concentrating at the moment on the 'natural' variant," said Kirsten Borchers, one of the researchers, in a news release. "That way we remain very close to the original material. Even if the potential for synthetic hydrogels is big, we still need to learn a fair amount about the interactions between the artificial substances and cells or natural tissue. Our biomolecule-based variants provide the cells with a natural environment instead, and therefore can promote the self-organizing behavior of the printed cells to form a functional tissue model."

The current challenge for researchers is to produce vascularized tissue. This means creating tissue that has its own system of blood vessels. Yet if scientists succeed in creating tissue that can provide nutrients to itself, then it's very possible that artificial skin would be able to be successful.

"This step is very important for printing tissue or entire organs in the future," said Borchers in a news release. "Only once we are successful in producing tissue that can be nourished through a system of blood vessels can printing larger tissue structures become feasible."