A team of scientists from University of Wisconsin-Madison achieved for the first time 3D printing of brain tissue which can grow and function in the same way as in the human body. This is a big step forward because although this has been achieved with other organs, the brain has had a hard time.
The main problem with 3D printing brain tissue is that different areas of the brain They are very connected. It is not enough to have all the structures. It is important that these communicate as usual. In this way, you can understand the functioning of many diseases, test drugs, or even closely study the development of the human brain.
The best part is that the technique they used to 3D print brain tissue is very simple. All you need is a simple desktop 3D printer and some tools that can be found in almost any laboratory today. For this reason, these researchers, whose results have just been published in Cell Stem cellthey hope their discovery will help many scientists of the world.
Steps to 3D Print Brain Tissue
This is not the first time that brain tissue has been 3D printed. But this is the first time this has been achieved fully operational. And this became possible mainly due to two factors.
For one, instead of stacking the cells vertically, they did this horizontally. This may seem like a small thing, but it is very important because it provides oxygen and nutrients to the environment. more accessible to cells. On the other hand, we used softer bio ink than is usually used.
Bioink is biopolymer gel which serves as a scaffold for cell communication. This usually helps them stay united and stay on track. So much so that traditionally, when it came to 3D printing brain tissue, the cells couldn’t communicate with each other. In this case, the gel helps maintain structure, but at the same time allows some freedom of movement so that brain cells communicate in a normal way.
These cells are neurons obtained from culture induced pluripotent stem cells. That is, cells that rewind while. Already differentiated adult cells are used and, using very specific culture techniques, they are returned to a previous state in which, even in the embryo, they could differentiate into any cell type. So it is not necessary to resort to embryos to get them. Another positive factor of this protocol.
Very promising first results
These scientists managed to 3D print brain tissue from the area cortex and striatum. It was a complete success, as the neurons that made up the tissue formed networks between different layers and communicated with each other. through electrical impulses and the release of neurotransmittersjust like they do in the brain.
What is this for?
The study authors believe their findings could be used, for example, to test how healthy and damaged parts of the brains of Alzheimer’s patients communicate. You can also explore many others nervous system disorders and drugs are being tested to treat them.
They hope to improve Bioink and make some improvements to their printer. However, they have made 3D printing of functional brain tissue a reality. This is a great step, with the help of which it will gradually be possible to unravel some of the secrets of our most mysterious organ.
Source: Hiper Textual
