Scientists from Stanford University have developed a revolutionary approach to the creation of artificial organs-a model that takes vascular networks for 3D printing in minutes. This breakthrough hopes to solve one of the main problems in the field of transplantation - to provide nutrition for artificial fabrics.
It is estimated that only 10% of patients who need organ transplantation receive donor organs on time. The printed authorities are regarded as a future alternative, but by this time the creation of a viable vascular network has remained an extremely difficult task. Without vessels, artificial tissues quickly die due to lack of oxygen and nutrients.
A team of researchers, led by Elison Marsden, created a mathematical model that simulates the natural branching of vessels in the human body. It allows you to quickly and accurately accelerate internal vascular structures for any shape of the organ. To check their model, scientists have created a vascular network of 25 channels for the annular structure from the kidney cells, printing it from cold gelatin. After heating to the body temperature, hollow channels with a diameter of 1 mm were formed in the material - they were constantly served with oxygen and nutrients, which mimic the blood flow.
The results are striking: a week later, in a printed structure with vessels, 400 times more cells survived than in the structure without them. This confirms the vital need for such networks to preserve the functionality of artificial organs.
Currently, the main challenge is the inability to print thinner capillaries, which provide nutrition to the most remote cells. However, the research team is already working on this task.
French bioengineer Hugu Talbo considers this work as a breakthrough: "She slides the boundaries of the possible. We already see how a full -fledged vascular system can take not a week but hours." According to him, if the research is being promoted according to the plan, the first tests of printed organs on pigs can begin for five years.
