3D Printer Produces Synthetic Tissues

Scientists from Oxford University (United Kingdom) have designed a programmable 3-D printer than can produce a material that can flex like muscle or communicate like neurons. Hagan Bayley and colleagues have successfully printed tens of thousands of tiny, connected water droplets that are encapsulated within a very fine layer of oil. This material can perform some of the basic functions of the cells inside our own bodies.   The droplet networks can be functionalized with membrane proteins; for example, to allow rapid electrical communication along a specific path. The networks can also be programmed by osmolarity gradients to fold into otherwise unattainable designed structures. Printed droplet networks might be interfaced with tissues, used as tissue engineering substrates, or developed as mimics of living tissue.  Presently measuring at about 50 microns in diameter, the droplets are about five times larger than living cells, but the researchers are hopeful that they could potentially make the droplets far smaller.