Scientists may have developed a new way to grow realistic human organ tissue outside the human body. The new technology could be huge for testing drugs and, one day, repairing or replacing damaged organs.
In this latest study, the researchers developed unique methods to manufacture small, intricate scaffolds for individual cells to grow on. These artificial environments produce cells and tissues that resemble the real thing more closely than those grown lying flat in a petri dish.
The creations were possible with the use of BiowireTM. This is an innovative method of growing heart cells around a silk structure, as well as a scaffold for heart cells that snaps together like sheets of Velcro. The newest innovation, called AngioChip, actually takes this type of tissue engineering to a new level.
The scientists built a scaffold out of POMaC, which is a polymer that is both biodegradable and biocompatible. The scaffold is built out of a series of thin layers, stamped with a pattern of channels that are each about 50 to 100 micrometers wide. The layers resemble computer microchips and are stacked into a 3-D structure of synthetic blood vessels. As each layer is added, UV light is used to cross-link the polymer and bond it to the layer below.
"It's a fully three-dimensional structure complete with internal blood vessels," said Milica Radisic of the University of Toronto. "It behaves just like vasculature, and around it there is a lattice for other cells to attach and grow."
With this platform, the researchers successfully built model versions of both heart and liver tissues that function like the real thing.
"Previously, people could only do this using devices that squish the cells between sheets of silicone and glass," Radisic said. "You needed several pumps and vacuum lines to run just one chip. Our system runs in a normal cell culture dish, and there are no pumps; we use pressure head to perfuse media through the vasculature. The walls are open, so you can easily access the tissue. Our liver actually produced urea and metabolized drugs."
The findings could be huge in the field of pharmaceutical testing. It could also, eventually, lead to the creation of artificial organs or tissues that could replace damaged organs or tissues in people.
