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Engineers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have developed a 3D printing technique that locally controls the firmness of an object, opening up new biomedical pathways that may one day include artificial arteries and organic tissue.
The study, recently published in the journal Nature Communications, describes a layer-by-layer printing method that provides programmable control of fine-grained stiffness, allowing researchers to mimic the complex geometry of highly structured blood vessels while remaining flexible.
The results could one day lead to better, more personalized treatments for people with hypertension and other vascular diseases.
"The idea was to add independent mechanical properties to three-dimensional structures that could mimic the body's natural tissues," said Xiaobo Yin, associate professor in CU Boulder's Department of Mechanical Engineering and senior author of the paper. ;study. "This technology allows us to create microstructures that can be customized for disease models."
Hardened blood vessels are associated with cardiovascular disease, but it has always been difficult to find a solution for viable replacement of arteries and tissues.
To overcome these obstacles, researchers have found a unique way to take advantage of the role of oxygen in defining the final form of a 3D printed structure.
"Oxygen is usually a bad thing because it causes incomplete hardening," said Yonghui Ding, a postdoctoral researcher in mechanical engineering and senior author of the study. "Here we use a layer that allows a fixed rate of permeation of oxygen."
By keeping tight control over oxygen migration and subsequent exposure to light, Ding said, researchers have the freedom to control which areas of an object solidify to become harder. or softer, while maintaining the same geometry.
"This is a profound development and a first encouraging step in our goal of creating structures that work as a healthy cell should work," Ding said.
As a demonstration, the researchers printed three versions of a simple structure: an upper beam supported by two rods. The structures were identical in shape, size and materials, but had been printed with three variations in shaft stiffness: soft / soft, hard / soft and hard / hard. The harder stems supported the upper beam while the softer stems allowed partial or full subsidence.
The researchers repeated the feat with a small Chinese warrior figure, printing it so that the outer layers remained hard while the inside remained soft, leaving the warrior with a hard outside and a tender heart, so to speak.
The table-size printer is currently able to work with biomaterials up to 10 microns, about one tenth of the width of a human hair. Researchers are hopeful that future studies will further improve capacity.
"The challenge is to create an even finer scale for chemical reactions," said Yin. "But we see tremendous opportunities for this technology and the potential for artificial tissue manufacturing."
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