3D printing, bioinks create implantable blood vessels

Researchers in Asia used triple-coaxial cell printing technology to construct biomimetic tissue-engineered blood vessels that include an endothelium layer surrounded by a smooth muscle layer. The prematured blood vessels were evaluated in vivo through an interpositional abdominal aorta graft in a rat model. Credit: Gao et al. Usage Restrictions: Journalists may use this image only with appropriate credit.

A biomimetic blood vessel was fabricated using a modified 3D cell printing technique and bioinks, which were formulated from smooth muscle cells from a human aorta and endothelial cells from an umbilical vein.

The result is a fully functional blood vessel with a dual-layer architecture that outperforms existing engineered tissue and brings 3D-printed blood vessels several fundamental steps closer to clinical use.

The engineered blood vessels were grafted as abdominal aortas into six rats. Over the next several weeks, scientists observed a transformation in which the rat's fibroblasts formed a layer of connective tissue on the surface of the implant to integrate the fabricated vessel graft as part of the existing, living tissue.

The results, published in Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing, include details on the triple-coaxial 3D printing technology they developed and their analysis of the unique architecture, physical strengths and biological activity of the engineered tissue.

“The artificial blood vessel is an essential tool to save patients suffering from cardiovascular disease,” author Ge Gao said. “There are products in clinical use made from polymers, but they don't have living cells and vascular functions. We wanted to tissue-engineer a living, functional blood vessel graft.”

Prior attempts to construct small-diameter blood vessels have yielded blood vessels that are fragile and prone to blockage. They often use a stripped-down version of extracellular material, such as collagen-based bioinks. In contrast, material from a native blood vessel contains collagen plus a collection of diverse biomolecules that provide a favorable microenvironment for vascular cell growth.

Using these native-materials-based bioinks preserves the natural complexity of the blood vessel and accelerates the generation of functional vascular tissues, so they have enhanced strength and anti-thrombosis functions.

After fabrication, the printed blood vessel was matured in a lab that was designed to tune the vessel's biological and physical characteristics to precise specifications of wall thickness, cellular alignment, burst pressure, tensile strength, and its ability to contract, mimicking natural blood vessel function.

The authors plan to continue to develop processes to increase the strength of the blood vessels closer to that of human coronary arteries. They also plan to perform long-term evaluation of vascular grafts, observing what happens as they continue to develop in place and become real tissue in the implanted environment.

###

The article, “Tissue-engineering of vascular grafts containing endothelium and smooth-muscle using triple-coaxial cell printing,” is authored by Ge Gao, Hyeok Kim, Byoung Soo Kim, Jeong Sik Kong, Jae Yeon Lee, Bong Woo Park, Su Hun Chae, Jisoo Kim, Kiwon Ban, Jinah Jang, Hun-Jun Park and Dong-Woo Cho. The article will appear in the journal Applied Physics Reviews on October 22, 2019 (DOI: 10.1063/1.5099306). After that date, it can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5099306.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Applied Physics Reviews features articles on significant and current topics in experimental or theoretical research in applied physics, or in applications of physics to other branches of science and engineering. The journal publishes both original research on pioneering studies of broad interest to the applied physics community, and reviews on established or emerging areas of applied physics. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/are.

Media Contact

Larry Frum
media@aip.org
301-209-3090

http://www.aip.org 

Media Contact

Larry Frum EurekAlert!

All latest news from the category: Medical Engineering

The development of medical equipment, products and technical procedures is characterized by high research and development costs in a variety of fields related to the study of human medicine.

innovations-report provides informative and stimulating reports and articles on topics ranging from imaging processes, cell and tissue techniques, optical techniques, implants, orthopedic aids, clinical and medical office equipment, dialysis systems and x-ray/radiation monitoring devices to endoscopy, ultrasound, surgical techniques, and dental materials.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors