Three-dimensional (3D) printing isn't just a way to produce material products quickly. It also offers researchers a way to develop replicas of human tissue that could be used to improve human health, such as building organs for transplantation, studying disease progression and screening new drugs. While researchers have made progress over the years, the field has been hampered by limited existing technologies unable to print tissues with high cell density at scale.
A team of researchers from Penn State have developed a novel bioprinting technique that uses spheroids, which are clusters of cells, to create complex tissue. This new technique improves the precision and scalability of tissue fabrication, producing tissue 10-times faster than existing methods. It further opens the door to developing functional tissues and organs and progress in the field of regenerative medicine, the researchers said.
They published their findings in Nature Communications.
"This technique is a significant advancement in rapid bioprinting of spheroids," said Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in 3D Bioprinting and Regenerative Medicine and professor of engineering science and mechanics, of biomedical engineering and of neurosurgery at Penn State. "It enables the bioprinting of tissues in a high-throughput manner at a speed much faster than existing techniques with high cell viability."
Bioprinting allows researchers to build 3D structures from living cells and other biomaterials. Living cells are encapsulated in a substrate like a hydrogel to make a bioink, which is then printed in layers using a specialized printer. These cells grow and proliferate, eventually maturing into 3D tissue over the course of several weeks. Ozbolat explained that it's like constructing a brick wall where the cells are the bricks and the bioink is the cement or mortar.
