Last year, we got an amazing breakthrough when German researchers unveiled artificial printable blood vessels. But this year, bioengineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania have proved themselves one step ahead, by launching a 3D filament network for blood vessels.
The three types of blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) are an essential part of our circultory system. These are responsible to take-in and carry-out nutrients, minerals and sugars and other salts to and from the heart.
Sugar coated formula from Jordan Miller, a bioengineer from Pennsylvania University, can conveniently create 3D-printed blood vessels with RepRap printer, which afterwards would be incorporated into artificially made transplanted organs such as liver or kidneys. However, the printer isn’t itself able to directly print the vasculars, instead, sugar molds firstly get embedded in the tissues and then fully dissolved, leaving behind vessels’ like open bodies.
So, as I always consider 3D printers a key to numerous technological and scientific advances, it has again proved itself a concrete base for tomorrow’s research.
Source: UOP
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