Picture: Aengus McMahon
Researchers at the University of Galway have developed a new bioprinting technology that makes it possible to produce tissue that forms itself through cell-generated forces. This approach is based on the natural processes of organ development and could advance the production of functional, bioprinted organs. The results were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The team, led by the School of Engineering and the CÚRAM Research Centre for Medical Devices, focused on the replication of heart tissue. The aim is to further develop bio-printed organs for disease modeling, drug testing and regenerative medicine. The technology is based on a special “bio-ink” that contains living cells and supports their development through adhesion, growth and differentiation.
Ankita Pramanick, lead author of the study and CÚRAM PhD Candidate at University of Galway, said: “Our work introduces a novel platform, using embedded bioprinting to bioprint tissues that undergo programmable and predictable 4D shape-morphing driven by cell-generated forces. Using this new process, we found that shape-morphing improved the structural and functional maturity of bioprinted heart tissues.”
A key problem with bioprinting is the limited functionality of the tissue produced. For example, bioprinted heart tissue contracts, but with significantly less force than a healthy human heart. In addition, traditional approaches often focus on directly replicating the final anatomy of an organ, such as the heart, without taking into account the dynamic shape changes that play a key role during embryonic development.
The Galway team developed a technique in which tissues are printed so that they undergo programmable shape changes. These changes promote cell alignment and improve tissue contractility. Computer-based modeling made it possible to precisely predict and control the deformations.
Professor Andrew Daly, Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering and CÚRAM funded investigator and principal investigator on the project, said: “Our research shows that by allowing bioprinted heart tissues to undergo shape-morphing, they start to beat stronger and faster. The limited maturity of bioprinted tissues has been a major challenge in the field, so this was an exciting result for us. This allows us to create more advanced bioprinted heart tissue, with the ability to mature in a laboratory setting, better replicating adult human heart structure. We are excited to build on this shape-morphing approach in our ongoing European Research Council project, which is focused on developmentally-inspired bioprinting.We are still a long way away from bioprinting functional tissue that could be implanted in humans, and future work will need to explore how we can scale our bioprinting approach to human-scale hearts.
We will need to integrate blood vessels to keep such large constructs alive in the lab, but ultimately, this breakthrough brings us closer to generating functional bioprinted organs, which would have broad applications in cardiovascular medicine.”
Despite the successes, scaling up to human organs remains a challenge. The integration of blood vessels to keep large tissue structures alive is the focus of future work. However, research shows that the combination of bioprinting and development-inspired approaches is promising for developing functional organs for cardiovascular medicine.
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