Vascularized skin
Scientists have come up with a way to print skin with blood vessels
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA) have developed a technology for printing live skin with blood vessels on a 3D printer. With its help, scientists will be able to create transplants that will take root in the body, the press service of the institute reports (Living Skin Can Now be 3D-Printed With Blood Vessels Included). A detailed description of the development appeared in the journal Tissue Engineering Part A (Baltazar et al., 3D bioprinting of a vascularized and perfectable skin graft using human keratinocytes).
The idea of printing skin implants on a 3D printer is not new. But today, these implants look like an unusual patch: they help heal the wound faster, but eventually just fall off. They cannot unite with their host cells - skin implants do not have enough vascular system for this.
Scientists have been working on creating such a network of vessels. To do this, in "bio-ink" they mixed human endothelial cells, which line the inside of blood vessels, and human pericyte cells, which wrap endothelial cells, with collagen and other structural cells, from which a transplant is usually made. Within a few weeks, the cells began to bind and form a vascular structure.
The printed skin was successfully tested in experiments on laboratory mice: its vessels began to connect with the vessels of mice.
In order for the new technology to be tested in clinical trials, researchers should be able to edit donor cells using something like CRISPR technology so that the vessels can integrate and be accepted by the patient's body.
In the future, the technology will be able to help patients with severe burns, as well as people with diseases such as ulcers or diabetes, whose wounds heal slowly.
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