PRINTING MUSCLE

“Organovo's 3-D printer creates human tissues that could help speed drug discovery”

Research is being currently done in the startup of San Diego by Organovo Chirag Khaitwala who built a thin layer of smooth muscle. The procedure itself utilizes a thick layer of “human skeletal muscle” as a cartridge. It is loaded into the 3-D printer which then produces a “uniform, closely spaced lines in a petri dish”. This type of arrangement works because the cells communicate and grow forming a working muscle tissue. Unlike other ink-jet printers, this technology lets cells interact in cell deposit. They are incubated which promotes them to exchange chemical signals. Once printed, the cells are bundled into a paste to promote growth and migration. For example, “Muscle cells orient themselves in the same direction to create tissue that contract”.

Organovo has developed cells of “cardiac muscle, lungs and blood vessels”. Although, the lab achieved in synthesizing small pieces of tissue, in fact, the goal is to make organs through printers for transplant and for drug development. This technique fills a critical need and saves drug industries billions of dollars because researchers can use this tissue from 3-D printers to perform clinical trials and it can help them detect drug toxicity earlier than other tests.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/39687/?mod=chthumb