![]() ![]() ![]() Marc Jeschke at Sunnybrook Research Institute to develop a special kind of printer cartridge. Leng and McAllister worked with Boyang Zhang, who has since completed his PhD, Axel Guenther, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto, and burn surgeon Dr. The two types of skin cells, fibroblasts and keratinocytes, are kept in separate channels and squirted out of the 3D printer to form an organized, multi-layer gel. This diagram shows how the PrintAlive Bioprinter works. ![]() That means skin layers would collapse if printed using conventional 3D printers, Leng said. Also, most 3D printers are designed to print hard materials instead of flexible materials like skin. Skin grafts have been traditionally impossible to create with 3D printers because they involve complex layers of different cells that require different environments. The team is hoping to move onto larger grafts in pigs, then to human clinical trials within two or three years. So far, the team's 3D-printed grafts of human skin have improved wound healing in immune-compromised mice. The 3D printer can rapidly create grafts using the patient's own cells by printing them out in patterns such as spots and stripes instead of as a continuous sheet that would require far more cells, said McAllister, who completed her master's degree at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering in January. It typically takes at least 14 days for cultured skin cells to grow enough to be ready for grafting. Ideally, the patients' own cells should be used to close the wound to reduce complications and scarring, but that approach may be too slow, McAllister said. In some cases, burn victims can die if their wounds aren't closed quickly. When that type of burn happens, "it's very difficult for the body to regenerate itself," she added in an interview with CBC News. In this case, the problem is severe burns that damage both the outer layer of skin, the epidermis, and the inner layer, the dermis, which are made of different cells in different structures, said Leng, a PhD student in mechanical and industrial engineering. The Printalive Bioprinter prints groups of skin cells as spots or stripes. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |