This 3D Bioprinted Organ Just Took Its First "Breath"

Summary

Researchers have developed a 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac using living cells, marking a significant step towards replicating human organs to avoid rejection. The model, smaller than a penny, demonstrates the potential of 3D bioprinting to create complex organ structures. The team overcame challenges in printing independent vessel architectures with an open-source SLATE technology, using food dye to control light-induced solidification. This breakthrough could address the organ shortage, with the team making their designs freely available to foster further scientific advancements.

Takeaways

• 💡 Scientists have created a 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac using living cells, which is a significant step towards replicating human organs.
• 🔍 The lung model is smaller than a penny but demonstrates the potential to avoid organ rejection by using a patient's own cells.
• 🏗️ The team aims to replicate the complex structures of human organs, starting with the lung as a proof of concept.
• 🌡️ The lung model can mimic blood flow and ventilate oxygen, providing insights into how red blood cells take up oxygen.
• 🌟 Printing multiple independent vessel architectures is a major challenge due to the intricate vascular networks in organs.
• 👨‍⚕️ The liver is highlighted as an example of an organ with over 500 functions, all dependent on its complex vascular network.
• 🔑 The potential of bioprinting to address the shortage of organs for over 100,000 people in the U.S. is emphasized.
• 🧬 Bioprinted organs could reduce organ rejection rates as they would contain the patient's own cells.
• 🧪 Living cells are fragile and require quick placement into a hydrogel environment to ensure survival after extraction.
• 🛠️ The team used a technique called SLATE (Stereolithography Apparatus for Tissue Engineering) for creating the lung model.
• 💡 Food dye was discovered as a biocompatible material to block light and enable the creation of complex internal structures in the hydrogel.
• 📚 The team has made their source data freely available to promote collaboration and further research in the field of 3D bioprinting.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac?

The 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac is designed to replicate the functions of a human lung, including pumping air into airways and mimicking blood flow, using living cells. It serves as a proof of concept for the potential of 3D bioprinting to replicate human organs and potentially avoid organ rejection.

How does the lung-mimicking air sac contribute to the field of organ replication?

The lung-mimicking air sac brings researchers one step closer to understanding how to replicate human organs using a patient's own cells, which could help to avoid organ rejection and address the shortage of available organs for transplant.

What is the significance of the team's approach to replicating the architectural structures of human organs?

Replicating the complex architectural structures of organs is crucial because these structures are responsible for the organs' functions. The team's approach using 3D bioprinting and the lung as a proof of concept demonstrates the potential for creating functional artificial organs.

What is the challenge in printing multiple independent vessel architectures in artificial organs?

The challenge lies in the complexity of organs, where each tissue has its own intricate network of blood vessels that are physically and biochemically intertwined, serving crucial purposes in supplying organs with essential nutrients.

How does the liver illustrate the complexity of organ functions and their dependence on the vascular network?

The liver, with over 500 functions including bile production for digestion and blood sugar regulation, exemplifies the complexity of organs and how their functions rely on the intricate network of vessels for the necessary nutrients.

What is the current situation regarding the shortage of organs for transplantation in the U.S.?

Over 100,000 people are waiting for organs in the U.S., highlighting the urgent need for solutions like bioprinting healthy organs to address this shortage.

How do bioprinted organs potentially reduce the incidents of organ rejection?

Bioprinted organs could reduce organ rejection incidents since they would be created using the patient's own cells, thus minimizing the immune system's response against the transplanted organ.

What is the process of encapsulating living cells within a hydrogel in the context of 3D bioprinting?

Living cells are extremely fragile outside the body and need to be placed into their final structure quickly. They are encapsulated within a hydrogel, a water-based material that emulates a cell's environment, allowing them to survive for longer periods.

What is the SLATE technique used by Jordan and his team to print the lung model?

SLATE, or Stereolithography Apparatus for Tissue Engineering, is an open-source bioprinting technology that uses additive manufacturing to create soft hydrogels layer-by-layer using light from a digital projector, allowing for the creation of complex internal structures.

How did the team address the issue of light disrupting the intended pattern during the bioprinting process?

The team used biocompatible food dyes as a light-blocking element to confine the solidification process to a thin layer, ensuring the creation of the desired internal structures without light interference from previously solidified layers.

What is the significance of the team's decision to make their work's source data freely available?

By making their work's source data freely available, the team is embracing the open-source philosophy, which encourages collaboration and innovation. This approach can lead to unexpected advancements in the field of 3D bioprinting and organ replication.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ 3D Bioprinted Lung-Mimicking Air Sac

This paragraph introduces a groundbreaking 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac, smaller than a penny, which uses living cells to replicate the complex functions of a human lung. The model is designed to pump air into airways, mimic blood flow, and is a step towards understanding how to replicate human organs using a patient's own cells to potentially avoid organ rejection. The team's goal is to replicate the intricate architecture of human organs, starting with the lung as a proof of concept. The model's function is to demonstrate how deoxygenated red blood cells can be pumped into the air sac and oxygen can be ventilated into the airway, observing the oxygen uptake by the red blood cells.

Keywords

💡3D Bioprinting

3D bioprinting is an advanced form of 3D printing that uses living cells as the 'ink' to create biological tissues and organs. In the context of the video, this technology is used to create a lung-mimicking air sac, which is a significant step towards understanding how to replicate human organs. The video highlights that this process could potentially avoid organ rejection by using a patient's own cells.

💡Lung-Mimicking Air Sac

A lung-mimicking air sac is a 3D bioprinted structure that replicates the function of a human lung, including the ability to pump air and mimic blood flow. The video script discusses a specific model that is smaller than a penny but capable of demonstrating the principles of oxygen exchange, which is central to the theme of organ replication.

💡Organ Rejection

Organ rejection refers to the body's immune response to a transplanted organ that it recognizes as foreign. The video explains how bioprinting organs using a patient's own cells could reduce the incidence of organ rejection, as the organs would be less likely to trigger an immune response.

💡Vascular Architecture

Vascular architecture pertains to the complex network of blood vessels within organs that supply them with essential nutrients. The video emphasizes the challenge of replicating this intricate system in artificial organs, which is crucial for their functionality.

💡Hydrogel

Hydrogel is a water-based material that is used in the video to encapsulate living cells during the bioprinting process. It mimics the environment of a cell, allowing the cells to survive outside the body for extended periods, which is vital for the successful creation of the lung-mimicking air sac.

💡Stereolithography Apparatus for Tissue Engineering (SLATE)

SLATE is an open-source bioprinting technology mentioned in the video that uses light from a digital projector to create soft hydrogels layer-by-layer. It is a light-based polymerization system that is instrumental in the construction of the lung model, showcasing the innovative approach to tissue engineering.

💡Photo Absorbers

Photo absorbers are substances that can block or absorb light, preventing it from penetrating certain areas. In the context of the video, food dyes are used as biocompatible photo absorbers to confine the solidification process in 3D bioprinting, ensuring the creation of complex internal structures.

💡Blood Flow and Pulsating Breathing

These terms refer to the physiological processes that the bioprinted lung model is designed to mimic. The video script describes how the model needs to be sturdy enough to withstand the pressures and frequencies of blood flow and breathing, which are essential for its function as a lung mimic.

💡Open-Source

Open-source in the video refers to the practice of making the designs, data, and methods freely available to the public. The team behind the lung model has chosen this approach to encourage collaboration and further advancements in the field of 3D bioprinting.

💡Organ Shortage

Organ shortage is a critical issue where the demand for transplant organs exceeds the supply. The video suggests that 3D bioprinting could be a solution to address this shortage by providing replacement organs, potentially saving many lives.

💡Collaborative Efforts

Collaborative efforts in the video script refer to the teamwork and sharing of resources and knowledge among scientists and researchers. This approach is highlighted as a key factor in advancing research and innovation in the field of 3D bioprinting and organ replication.

Highlights

A 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac has been created that can pump air and mimic blood flow using living cells.

The lung model is smaller than a penny but represents a step towards replicating human organs to avoid organ rejection.

The team aims to replicate the complex architectural structures of organs using 3D bioprinting, starting with the lung as a proof of concept.

The lung tissue mimic allows for the testing of oxygen uptake by red blood cells in a controlled environment.

Printing multiple independent vessel architectures is a significant challenge due to the complexity of organ structures.

Each tissue has a unique network of blood vessels that are crucial for supplying nutrients to organs.

The liver, for example, performs over 500 functions that rely on its intricate vascular network.

Mimicking the multi-vascular architecture of organs is difficult but has the potential to address the shortage of available organs.

Over 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for organs, and bioprinting could provide a solution by supplying replacement organs.

Bioprinted organs using a patient's own cells could reduce the incidence of organ rejection.

Living cells are fragile and must be quickly placed into their final structure after extraction to ensure survival.

Cells are encapsulated within a hydrogel to emulate their natural environment and extend their survival time.

The lung model was printed using a technique called SLATE, an open-source bioprinting technology.

SLATE uses light from a digital projector to create soft hydrogels layer-by-layer through additive manufacturing.

Food dye was used to block light penetration into previous layers, allowing for complex internal structures.

The printed tissues are sturdy enough to withstand blood flow and mimic the pressures and frequencies of natural breathing.

The team plans to create more complex designs and scale them up, with the ultimate goal of 3D bioprinting functional organs.

The team has made their source data freely available to advance research and encourage collaboration in the field.

Open-source sharing of designs and technology fosters innovation and the potential for new applications in bioprinting.

Transcripts

You’re looking at a 3D bioprinted lung-mimicking air sac, that’s able to pump air into airways,

mimic blood flow and was built using living cells.

Granted it’s smaller than a penny, but this lung-mimicking air sac could bring us one

step closer to understanding how we could replicate human organs using a patient’s

cells which could one day help to avoid organ rejection.

The team behind this model is trying to replicate the complicated architectural structures of

our organs using 3D bioprinting and used the lung as their proof of concept.

Jordan: “It is a very complicated structure, yet it has extremely clear readouts for its

function.

If we have a mimic of lung tissue, we can pump in deoxygenated red blood cells.

We can ventilate in the airway oxygen, and we can see to what extent those red blood

cells will take up the oxygen that we've been putting into the air sac.”

Being able to print multiple independent vessel architectures has been one of the biggest

challenges in the world of artificial organs.

That’s because our organs are, well, pretty complicated.

You see, each tissue has its own knotted mess of blood vessels, which are physically and

biochemically mixed.

And they serve crucial purposes by supplying organs with essential nutrients.

Take the liver for example.

It has over 500 functions, like producing bile for digestion and maintaining the right

amounts of blood sugar within the body.

All these functions depend on the intricate network of vessels to get their necessary

nutrients.

It’s this multi-vascular architecture that makes mimicking and replicating human organs

so difficult.

If we could figure it out, the payoff would be huge.

Over 100,000 people are waiting for organs in the U.S. and bioprinting healthy organs

could be a way to address this shortage by supplying replacement organs.

It could also reduce the incidents of organ rejection since bioprinted organs would contain

the patient’s own cells.

But, working with living cells isn’t easy.

They’re extremely fragile outside of the body and once they’ve been extracted, they

need to be placed into their final structure as quickly as possible to ensure survival.

The cells are then encapsulated within a hydrogel, a water-based material which emulates a cell’s

environment, to allow them to survive for longer periods.

So how did Jordan and his team print the lung model?

They used a technique called stereolithography apparatus for tissue engineering, or SLATE.

It’s an open-source bioprinting technology that uses additive manufacturing to create

soft hydrogels layer-by-layer by using light from a digital projector.

So this is a light-based polymerization system.

So we have a light-sensitive liquid, that when you shine the right color of light at

the right intensity of energy, the right number of photons hit that sample, you can convert

that liquid into a solid only in that region.

But using light also created some issues, since the light could get into previously

solidified layers, thus disrupting the intended pattern.

To address this, the team searched to find an element that could block light and that

was biocompatible.

And the winner was food dye. Jordan: “These biocompatible food additives

that all of us are eating all the time anyway, we already know that they're biocompatible.

They're compatible with live cells, and they can be used as potent photo absorbers to block

the light penetrating previous layers, getting us our complex architecture.”

The food dyes were able to confine the solidification to a thin layer, creating the desired internal

structures.

In the end, these tissues proved to be sturdy enough to withstand blood flow and pulsating

breathing, the rhythm that mimics the pressures and frequencies of how we breathe.

So this model may be tiny, but it’s just the beginning for Jordan and

his team.

They plan to make more complex designs and scale them up.

And in the spirit of teamwork and advancing research, they’ve made their work’s source

data freely available.

Jordan: “We're using open-source to be able to make the 3D printer, we're giving back

to the open-source community our designs.

But I think scientists in general, get a little bit nervous about releasing things into the

open, because they're like, "Well, what are people going to use this for?

I don't really know."

You actually want to open-source your stuff because you don't know what people are going

to use it for.

And that's really the power behind open-source, and it's really the power behind science.”

And thanks to collaborative efforts like these, we’ll one day be able to 3D bioprint organs

to help address the organ shortage.

If you liked this video, check out our other 3D printing video where a new 3D printer can shape objects,

all-at-once, using specialized synthetic resin and rays of light.

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