The Emergence of 3D Printing Skin Technology
According to relevant media reports, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the United States have recently developed a 3D printing technology that can create living skin with blood vessels, and this technology is also moving towards creating a natural skin graft closer to the human body. The goal of things has taken a historic and important step.
The Necessity of 3D Printing Skin Technology
Pankaj Karande, a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Research (CBIS) of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said: “The current clinical treatment of skin transplantation is more like a'flashy' band-aid, which can accelerate the wound. Heals, but eventually it will also cause the transplanted skin to fall off and cannot be combined with the host cells."
The current skin transplant surgery lacks a functioning vascular system. Scientist Callander has been studying this technology for many years. A paper he once published pointed out that researchers can currently provide two types of human living cells and combine them. As a "biological ink", then printed into the skin structure. Since then, he and the research team have been establishing a close cooperative relationship with researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, and combining blood vessels in 3D printed skin.
The current skin transplant surgery lacks a functioning vascular system. Scientist Callander has been studying this technology for many years. A paper he once published pointed out that researchers can currently provide two types of human living cells and combine them. As a "biological ink", then printed into the skin structure. Since then, he and the research team have been establishing a close cooperative relationship with researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, and combining blood vessels in 3D printed skin.
Trial of 3D Printing Skin Technology
The researchers pointed out that if they add key elements (such as human endothelial cells) and place them in blood vessels, while wrapping human adventitia cells with endothelial cells, animal collagen and other structural cells that usually appear in skin transplants, Within a few weeks, these cells began to interconnect and form biologically relevant vascular structures.
Callander said: "When engineers begin to reconstruct the biological structure, we always realize that the biological structure similar to the skin is much more complicated than the simple experiments of scientists in the laboratory. However, we were surprised to find that once we When you start to come into contact with this complex biological structure, organisms will naturally take over and form a structure that gradually approaches the natural form."
Callander said: "When engineers begin to reconstruct the biological structure, we always realize that the biological structure similar to the skin is much more complicated than the simple experiments of scientists in the laboratory. However, we were surprised to find that once we When you start to come into contact with this complex biological structure, organisms will naturally take over and form a structure that gradually approaches the natural form."
The Future of 3D Printed Skin Technology
Once the Yale University research team transplanted the 3D printed skin into the experimental mouse body, the blood on the 3D printed skin began to connect with the mouse’s own blood vessels. Callander said: “This is very important, which means that there is actually blood. And nutrients are transferred to the transplant and maintain the survival of the transplant. In order to make the 3D printed skin technology reach the level of clinical application, researchers need to use similar CRISPR technology to edit donor cells so that the patient’s body can accept the transplanted skin, although we still Not achieved, but we are one step closer to our goal."
