3D-printed sugar network to help grow artificial liver
Published: 2nd Jul 2012 18:33:09 Researchers have moved a step
closer to creating a synthetic liver, after a US team created a
template for blood vessels to grow into, using sugar. Scientists
have long been experimenting with the 3D printing of cells and
blood vessels, building up tissue structure layer by layer with
artificial cells. But the synthetically engineered cells often
die before the tissue is formed. The technology, in which a 3D
printer uses sugar as its building material, could one day be
used for transplants. The study appears in the journal Nature
Materials. Dr Jordan Miller from the lab of the lead scientist,
Dr Christopher Chen, at the University of Pennsylvania, told BBC
News: "The big challenge in understanding how to grow large
artificial tissue is how to keep all the cells alive in these
engineered tissues, because when you put a lot of cells
together, they end up taking nutrients and oxygen from
neighbouring cells and end up suffocat