Breakthrough in Bioprinting Functional Human Heart Tissue

Breakthrough in Bioprinting Functional Human Heart Tissue
Image used for information purposes only. Picture Credit: https://irishtechnews-ie.exactdn.com/

Key Highlights: 

  • Innovative Bioprinting Technique 
  • Improved Structural and Functional Maturity 
  • Predictive Computational Model 

That of University of Galway is one of the very groundbreaking steps in the bioprinting of human heart tissues, going to get us closer to lab-grown organs that function like their real versions. That particular breakthrough seems to be the tissue which can change its shape by yielding to cell-generated forces in a manner that biological tissues change their shapes during the organ development process. 

This work, led by the School of Engineering and CÚRAM Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices, was published in Advanced Functional Materials. The scientists intend to reproduce heart tissue to produce bioprinted organs that can change the current ways of modeling diseases, screening drugs, and practicing regenerative medicine. 

This technology works with the use of living cells contained in specially designed “bioinks.” Bioinks are created to support the cell during its maturation process. It induces adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation primarily during cell maturation. Through this technology, full function cannot be achieved; for instance, with the bio printer’s ability to produce heart tissue that becomes contraction-competent: It typically exhibits forces that are considerably weaker than those in operation in an adult heart of normal human physiology. 

Traditional approaches of bioprinting have been relatively more focused on the final form of an organ as, say, a heart; all the dynamic changes in shape during their formation inside the embryo are completely overlooked. For instance, the heart starts like an inotropic tube bent and twisted to its mature four-chambered structure; the process is critical for proper maturation and differentiation of cells. 

This work, by the Galway team, identified the gap of such a kind and thus prepared an innovative novel technique combining shape-changing behaviors into the printing process. Ankita Pramanick said that the work introduces an entirely new concept of a first-of-its-kind platform named embedded bioprinting capable of creating the tissues that initiate undergoing programmable and 4D shape morphing due to cell-generated forces. This matured process greatly improved the heart tissue maturation of structures and functions, showing an important feature of biocompatibility. 

Changes in print geometry and bioink stiffness developed showed to modulate the amount of shape change; cell alignment was improved together with their contractile properties. Computational model of tissue shape morphing by the group would be greatly needed for producing a functional organ within bioprinting. 

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
LinkedIn