3D Printers Can Print Blood Vessels

Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology found that a 3D inkjet printer, with some enhancements, could print blood vessels.

They used -photon polymerization to make the printing much more precise and come up with artificial blood vessels that could provide artificial tissue and even artificial organs in the future. The goal is to shorten the waiting list for future organ transplants.

"Brief but intensive laser impulses impact the [printing] material and stimulate the molecules in a very small focus point so that crosslinking of the molecules occurs," a press release states. "The material becomes an elastic solid, due to the properties of the precursor molecules that have been adjusted by the chemists in the project team. In this way highly precise, elastic structures are built according to a 3-dimensional building plan." Fraunhofer researchers said they are currently building a prototype printer.

The organs not only have to be elastic, but they also have to be "printed" in a way so they can be adopted by a human body. The scientists are using modified biomolecules such as heparin and anchor peptides that are built into the artificial organs, which creates biofunctionalized structures that are compatible with living body cells that can dock onto them. The press release states that the researchers also "develop inks made of hybrid materials that contain a mixture of synthetic polymers and biomolecules right from the beginning."

There was no information when these artificial organs may actually be available in commercial medicine.