Recent Innovation Prints Functional Human Tissue Ten Times Faster Than Current Methods

By Keira Ha

Current Events

Penn State researchers discovered a 3D bioprinting method that can create functioning tissue ten times quicker than other existing techniques.

Three dimensional bioprinting combines cells, biomaterials, growth factors, and hydrogel to create functioning tissue. Unlike traditional 3D printing, which melts materials like plastic to print layers, bioprinting requires delicate processes to maintain living cells.

This process can be highly time-consuming, especially when printing complex structures like organs. To do this, more preparation is required to ensure it maintains its shape by creating and printing a scaffold of the individual’s organ. Various methods are required to keep the cells alive during the printing process, demanding a problematic amount of time. This 8 week long process could negatively affect the health outcome of patients urgently in need of an organ or tissue transplant.

Fortunately, with a new 3D bioprinting technique, usable tissue can be printed within forty minutes. This method is called “High-throughput Integrated Tissue Fabrication System for Bioprinting,” or HITS-Bio. The technique artificially creates complex tissue using spheroids, which are clumps of cells that behave like tissue.  

According to Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, a professor at Penn State, “it’s difficult to achieve the same cell density as what’s found in the human body with […] standard [3D bioprinting methods]. Cell density is essential for developing tissue that’s both functional and can be used in a clinical setting. Spheroids [...] offer a promising alternative for tissue bioprinting because they have a cell density similar to human tissue.” [1]

HITS-Bio uses a “digitally controlled nozzle array” with several nozzles to aid in faster three-dimensional printing. According to interestingengineering.com [2], “This allows for faster and more precise placement of spheroids, enabling the creation of complex tissue structures with customized patterns.” Ozbolat believes “expanding the number of nozzles could lead to production of larger and more intricate tissues, such as organs and organ tissue like the liver.”

The research team is currently working towards printing 3D blood vessels, which would lead to the creation of a plethora of new sustaining tissues. The latest development in 3D bioprinting technique directly repaired a rat’s damaged skull by printing spheroids into the wound. The operation was successful as “in a surgical setting, the surrounding blood vessels could help with blood flow to the bioprinted bone tissue”, according to Ozbolat. The artificial tissue may struggle to get oxygen due to the lack of blood vessels—3D printed or not, inside the tissue itself.

Overall, HITS-Bio is revolutionary in the field of regenerative medicine, but requires further research to create self-sustaining tissue with its own vessels. Society may switch from animal testing to testing 3D Bioprinted tissue in the future. However, as bioprinting tissue becomes increasingly complex, it is important to keep ethical considerations in mind. At what point do bioprinted specimens raise the same moral questions as living beings? Is this development really as exciting as it may seem? 

Sources:

1. "New Bioprinting Technique Creates Functional Tissue 10x Faster." Penn State News, 2023, https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/new-bioprinting-technique-creates-functional-tissue-10x-faster.

2. "3D Bioprinting Tech Makes Functional Tissues Faster." Interesting Engineering, 2023, https://interestingengineering.com/science/3d-bioprinting-tech-makes-functional-tissues-faster.

3. "3D Bioprinting Overview." The Medical Futurist, 2023, https://medicalfuturist.com/3d-bioprinting-overview/#:~:text=At%20first,%20researchers%20scan%20the,as%20long%20as%20eight%20weeks.

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