Scientists are working to build blood vessels from human cells using tiny ice sculptures — these frigid 3D forms twist and branch like real arteries and can be used as temporary scaffolds that later get melted away, to be replaced by living cells.
"Currently, this is more of a proof of concept," Yang said, but with development, this technique might be useful for fabricating blood vessels that could be transplanted into a person when they need an artery or vein repaired, replaced or bypassed.Doctors currently harvest blood vessels for transplant from elsewhere in a patient's body or from a donor.
The team's new work — which Yang will present at the 68th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting being held from Feb. 10 to 14 in Philadelphia — was built on the back of a printing technique called 3D-ICE, first described in a 2022 paper in the journal Advanced Science. The printer spits out about 200 drops of water per second, Yang said. This rate is slow enough to enable one water drop to start to freeze before the next one hits but fast enough that the drops still freeze together in a smooth structure, rather than creating defined layers. If the drops fell too fast, one liquid water drop would merge into the next and spread out before freezing, Yang explained.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)