by Queensland University of Technology – MedicalXpress
Artificial 3D blood vessels that have the strength, structure and complex cellular make-up of real blood vessels have been developed by Singapore and QUT scientists for research into many diseases.
Associate Professor Yi-Chin Toh from QUT’s Center for Biomedical Technologies and Max Planck Queensland Center collaborated with scientists from Singapore University of Technology and Design led by Associate Professor Michinao Hashimoto for the study published in the journal Small.
Professor Toh, from the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, said engineering a vascular construct with the intricacies of multilayered blood vessels required hierarchically branched veins where larger vessels branched into multiple smaller vessels with different cell types in each distinctive layer.
“We knew that it was not feasible to use existing bioprinting methods to engineer the intricacies of blood vessels so we adapted them to make novel hollow vessels,” Professor Toh said.
“Bioprinting is a technology where living human cells are mixed with bioinks to create 3D-printed, tissue-like, three-dimensional structures.
