Swedish researchers at Linkoping University have made a significant breakthrough by developing two 3D bioprinting techniques to artificially generate thick skin that can develop a functional vascular network.
This is a crucial step towards creating durable and natural-looking skin for patients with severe injuries.
However, two distinct technologies take different approaches to the same challenge.
The desired study results were published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.
Johan Junker, an associate professor at Linkoping University, said that the dermis is so complicated that they won’t grow it in a lab. That’s why they decided to transplant the building blocks and then let the body make the dermis itself.
Junker and his team designed a bio-ink called “ulnk” in which fibroblasts are cultured on the surface of small spongy elastin grains and sheathed in a hyaluronic acid gel.
They were able to create a skin structure filled with high-density cells at will by building this ink three-dimensionally using a 3D printer.
The research team has also created a technology called REFRESH (Rerouting of Free-Floating Suspended Hydrogel Filaments) which enables the adaptable structure of blood vessels in artificial tissues by printing and arranging threads of hydrogel that is 98 percent water.
Moreover, these threads were particularly tougher than ordinary gel materials; they could maintain their shape even when tied and also had shape memory properties that allowed them to return to their original form.
When the hydrogel threads are discovered by a specific enzyme, only a long, thin cavity remains in their original place. These channels can then be used as a flow equivalent to a blood vessel, enabling a network of blood vessels to be freely formed inside artificially created tissue.
This technology represents a significant step in developing complex and viable organs and tissues.
The researchers succeeded in constructing a complex 3D network. They hope to continue this with technology to automate such operations and hereby create a method to efficiently stretch a network of blood vessels throughout an official organ.
Due to uncertainties in the wound environment, such as inflammations and bacterial infections, new techniques will be needed to bridge the gap between research results and clinical application.
These technologies may be a breakthrough in solving these problems in regenerative medicine in the near future.