Computer-Assisted Methods and Mechanisms for the Construction of Complex, Three-Dimensional Tissues and Tissue Products

Drexel University
posted on 03/17/2010

• request more info 
•   
•  LICENSE ONLINE

Tissue engineering of whole organs has been proclaimed as a potential endgame cure for myriad diseases spanning diabetes, liver failure, heart disease, renal disease, and more. Every tissue and organ in the human body degrades in performance and functionality with aging and will eventually fail if not repaired or replaced. Tissue-engineered organs promise the ability to regenerate damaged body parts without the immunogenicity or supply shortages of transplants.

Simple monolayer tissues such as bladder and cartilage have been successfully engineered and deployed clinically. However, more sophisticated organs have complex spatial arrangements of cells types and robust circulatory networks that cannot be replicated by existing technology. The final quality of tissue engineered products is highly dependent on the developer’s ability to mimic the physiological environment of the native tissue. Thus the progress of tissue engineering requires versatile new methods of tissue construct formation.

Drexel researchers have produced a series of innovations utilizing computer-aided layered printing of cells and scaffold material. These methods are biocompatible and thus cells can be printed throughout the material, rather than by traditional post-processing seeding which leaves the interior of scaffolds depleted of cells and has limited spatial control. Additionally, the 3-D layering techniques can facilitate the development of a circulatory system to support the growing tissue constructs. These constructs have also been combined with novel microfluidic technology for in vitro pharmacological screening, predictive toxicology, and pharmacokinetics.