Scientists from theUniversity of Toronto(UoT) andSunnybrook Research Institute（SRI）创建了一个手持式3D生物生产工具，能够打印皮肤细胞，以治疗烧伤受害者的厚度伤口。
According to the research recently published in theLab on a Chipjournal, “When manually positioned above a target surface, the compact instrument [weighing 0.8 kg] conformally deposits a biomaterial or tissue sheet from a microfluidic cartridge.”
The ‘first’ handheld bioprinter
According to theWorld Health Organization(WHO), an estimated 180,000 deaths annually are caused by burns – the vast majority occur in low-and-middle-income countries. Seeking methods to treat burn victims remotely, Navid Hakimi Ph.D. student at UoT, and Dr. Marc G. Jeschke, a Professor of Immunology at UoT and Director of theSunnybrook医院的Ross Tilley Burn Centerled the research of the portable 3D bioprinter.
“Most current 3D bioprinters are bulky, work at low speeds, are expensive and are incompatible with clinical application,” said Dr. Axel Guenther, Associate Professor at UoT’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, who supervised the research project.
Bioprinting versus skin grafting
Skin grafting, the surgical transplantation of skin tissue, requires a significant amount of healthy donor skin to travel across the three layers of the skin on deep wounds – the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. Nevertheless, according to the research, large amounts of healthy donor skin is not always available.
With minimal operating training, thehandheld bioprinter沉积表皮和真皮细胞以及a mixture of bio-neutral polymers and proteins for even distribution of the cells layers. This process has the potential to replace skin grafting processes as the “skin” printed can be layered in multiple sessions to heal a deep-thickness wound.
科学家还掺入了透明质酸盐，这是一种在人结缔组织中发现的蛋白质中的蛋白质中。该蛋白具有促进细胞和胶原蛋白之间的愈合和完整性的能力。对琼脂糖（线性聚合物）底物进行了测试in vitroconditions.这个过程验证了生物学的能力，其能力挤出了所需内容，宽度和厚度的狭窄片段。
Following these tests, the team conductedin vivostudies, which applied the entire 3D printer to deep skin wounds in experimental pig and mouse skin. The bioink stripes were able to cover the wounds in their entirety, using various angles. The technology is now being developed for human testing.
3D printing and wound care
雷电竞充值添加剂制造为医疗皮肤治疗和伤口护理的创新解决方案做出了贡献。去年，来自VTT Technical Centre of Finland, a state-owned research and development non-profit, have developed ananostructured cellulose 3D printable smart-dressing and 3D printed circuit board that heals and monitors skin wounds.
Prior to this, a research team atPohang University of Science and Technology(POSTECH) in Korea, developed askin 3D bioprinting process which uses extrusion-based and inkjet printing depositing advanced bioink materials. This method accelerated the growth of tissues in the layers of human skin, demonstrating a substantial skin culture in 2 weeks.
The research paper, “Handheld skin printer: in situ formation of planar biomaterials and tissues” was co-authored by Navid Hakimi, Richard Cheng, Lian Leng, Mohammad Sotoudehfar, Phoenix Qing Ba, Nazihah Bakhtyar, Saeid Amini-Nik, Dr. Marc G. Jeschke, and Axel Guenther.
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Featured image shows the handheld 3D bioprinter depositing skin cells onto a substrate.Clip via UoT.
