Bioprinting Organs and Tissue Reconstruction with Stem Cells, The 3D printing of Organs

 

What’s it about?

In this blog post, I discuss the possibilities of Bioprinting, also known as 3D printing organs or segments of tissues. Bioprinting has been deployed to replicate the geometrical shapes of organs/tissues accurately. With this information, I was curious about the progress and possibility of researchers/physicians using Bioprinting to replace damaged organs, or when a matching organ donor is unavailable. I want also to discuss how bioprinting works, and how it differs from standard 3D printers. Type of “printing material” used in the printing process, and how these prints (Organs/tissue segments) come out of the bioprinters.

We’re 3D printing Organs?!?!

It would be cool and awesome to say that we can replace missing/damaged organs with completely fabricated organs that came from stem cells. Unfortunately, significant challenges still face the possibility of 3D bioprinting organs. These challenges consist of; “Human cell incorporation into sizable and dense 3D structures exposes them to sub‐optimal conditions due to diffusion limits” (Kumar 1). Stem cell survival is impacted by “and function, such as low oxygen supply, perturbations in pH equilibrium, and constrained access to vital nutrients within the core of the engineered tissue”.(Kumar 1). There was also the issue for the longest time of how/what kind of medium would contain these stem cells for bio-printing, as well as the kind of cells that would be included within these molds. “As tissues are composed of many cell types and layers, 3D structures can be biofabricated by casting into molds, or by 3D bioprinting using multiple printheads to create complex 3D shapes, using various bioinks (biomaterials).[ 2 ] Likewise, different stem cells can be used to generate multiple tissue types.[ 3–6 ].”(Kumar 1)

What are Bio-inks?

Bio-inks are 3D structural models that can be used in bioprinting. These structures act as a medium that can hold/maintain planted cells with the structure as the bioprinter shapes the rest of the structure. seed cells are encapsulated within the bioink and are precisely deposited in specific spatial locations as the bioprinter shapes the structures” (Yang L 1). These Bio-inks can be used to represent the tissues that will be replaced, although some bio-inks show that their sturdiness of structure seems too tough for cell growth often leading to cell death. On the other hand, “gel-based materials of lower mechanical strength favor cell survival, the printed geometrical structures often collapse, losing their ability to replicate the natural tissue/organ architecture” (Yang L 1). After some research, the researcher found that embedding cells within the gel medium would often lead to high success in cell growth and structure stability.

Conclusion

 The possibility of artificially making organs and tissues is getting closer to reality. Although a few complications persist within the development of bio-printing, research has shown that the possibility of bio-printing is a possibility and might even be a thing shortly!

 

References:

Luo, Y., Xu, R., Hu, Z., Ni, R., Zhu, T., Zhang, H., & Zhu, Y. (2024). Gel-Based Suspension Medium Used in 3D Bioprinting for Constructing Tissue/Organ Analogs. Gels (Basel, Switzerland), 10(10), 644. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.3390/gels10100644

 

Alok Kumar, Robert A. Brown, Daniel Benyamien Roufaeil, Aditi Gupta, Erika L. Lipford, Divya Muthusamy, Amihai Zalzman, Ronna Hertzano, Tao Lowe, Joseph P. Stains, & Michal Zalzman. (2024). DeepFreeze 3D‐biofabrication for Bioengineering and Storage of Stem Cells in Thick and Large‐Scale Human Tissue Analogs. Advanced Science, 11(11). https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1002/advs.202306683