{"id":1469,"date":"2012-07-03T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/1469-bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs.html"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:49:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:49:01","slug":"bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs","title":{"rendered":"Bioprinting Blood Vessels &#8211; Another Step Towards 3D Printed Organs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at University of&nbsp;Pennsylvania&nbsp;have announced a breakthrough in 3D Printing human organs, as they demonstrated how to generate blood vessels to give life to the surrounding tissue. Most <a href=\"\/blog\/archives\/343-Print-me-a-new-kidney,-please.html\" target=\"_blank\">previous examples<\/a> <a href=\"\/blog\/archives\/765-3D-Printing-Human-Kidneys-not-our-latest-material-launch.html\" target=\"_blank\">of bioprinting<\/a> had been limited to printing layer upon layer of thin tissue. Now that blood vessels can be printed, the team led by Jordan Miller &amp; Christopher Chen, expect to be able to create thicker tissues and more complex organs such as a human liver.<\/p>\n<p>The photo below from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bodyworlds.com\/en\/plastination\/idea_plastination.html\" target=\"_blank\">Body Worlds<\/a> exhibition shows the human&nbsp;vascular&nbsp;system as it should be inside our bodies. This inspired Miller to look at the problem differently and see how a similar structure for blood vessels could be generated first and then surrounded by tissue.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/BodyWorkshumanvascularsystem.jpeg\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\"><\/p>\n<p>With this inspiration, the team set out to find the right material that would form a rigid structure when printed and also be non-toxic when it disolved. A mix of sugars (sucrose and glucose combined with dextran) proved suitable and was able to be printed using a modified RepRap 3D Printer.<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VHFlwJQIkE\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center> <\/p>\n<p>Tissue cells within a gel mixture is poured around the mold, then the sugar is disolved before pumping blood cells through the vessels providing the much needed nutrients. Over time new capillary vessels formed to further expand it&#8217;s reach in the same way our bodies do.<\/p>\n<p>Now the team will continue their work to explore how these artificial blood vessels can better link up with the natural vessels already existing in our bodies.&nbsp;Their work was published in the journal&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/doifinder\/10.1038\/nmat3357\" target=\"_blank\">Nature Materials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><sub> Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upenn.edu\/pennnews\/news\/penn-researchers-improve-living-tissues-3d-printed-vascular-networks-made-sugar\" target=\"_blank\">Penn News<\/a>&nbsp;&amp; <a href=\"www.twitter.com\/jmil\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter @jmil<\/a><\/sub><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at University of&nbsp;Pennsylvania&nbsp;have announced a breakthrough in 3D Printing human organs, as they demonstrated how to generate blood vessels&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":12962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[559,944],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-printing-industry","tag-inspiration","tag-whats-hot"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/BodyWorkshumanvascularsystem-625x437.jpeg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bioprinting Blood Vessels - Another Step Towards 3D Printed Organs - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Researchers at University of&nbsp;Pennsylvania&nbsp;have announced a breakthrough in 3D Printing human organs, as they demonstrated how to generate blood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/bioprinting-blood-vessels-another-step-towards-3d-printed-organs\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Paul\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d3958cfa4dca74308c1fce98e0707fa\"},\"headline\":\"Bioprinting Blood Vessels &#8211; 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