Organ Printing from Stem Cells: Researchers Have Figured Out How to Use Modified Inkjet Technology to Print Cells

摘要

Tissue engineering is bringing together advances from stem cell biology, microfluid-ics, robotics, and 3-D cell culture to develop novel products for the drug development and toxicity testing sectors. The ability to create miniature tissue or even human organs-on-a-chip is valuable for a number of reasons. First, it has been shown that cells growing in more physiological 3-D cultures behave differently to the same cells when grown in the type of 2-D cultures currently being used in the drug development sector. Second, when analyzing the potential toxic effects that drug metabolites may have on other cell types, it would be useful to have an in vitro system that links the human liver to a chamber containing the test cell type.