Scientists can now create artificial blood vessels with 3D printing

Sure, we can now 3D print stem cells and even whole organs like kidneys, heart, liver and lungs. But 3D printing blood vessels? Now that was a challenge. A team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has managed to successfully fabricate blood vessels using a three-dimensional bioprinting technique, Phys.org reports. Here’s how they did it: “The researchers first used a 3D bioprinter to make an agarose fiber template to serve as the mold for the blood vessels. They then covered the mold with a gelatin-like substance called hydrogel, forming a cast over the mold which was then reinforced via photocrosslinks.”

The tangled highway of blood vessels that twists and turns inside our bodies, delivering essential nutrients and disposing of hazardous waste to keep our organs working properly has been a conundrum for scientists trying to make artificial vessels from scratch. Now a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has made headway in fabricating blood vessels using a three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technique. The study is published online this month in Lab on a Chip. “Engineers have made incredible strides in making complex artificial tissues such as those of the heart, liver and lungs,” said senior study author, Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, biomedical engineer, and director of the BWH Biomaterials Innovation Research Center. “However, creating artificial blood vessels remains a critical challenge in tissue engineering. We’ve attempted to address this challenge by offering a unique strategy for vascularization of hydrogel constructs that combine advances in 3D bioprinting technology and biomaterials.”