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Printers produce 3-dimensional living tissue MUSC  and Clemson scientists are using desktop printers to produce three-dimensional living tissue. The work is a tiny first step towards printing complex tissues or even entire organs. “Instead of ink, we’re substituting components such as a growth medium and cells—which, just like ink, can be directed through the nozzle onto the ‘paper’ material,” said Thomas Boland, an assistant bioengineering professor at Clemson. In this case, the paper is actually plastic which can be placed in a petri dish for further study. “This could have the same kind of impact that Gutenberg’s press did,” said tissue engineer Vladimir Mironov, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. A journal article outlining their work will be published in Trends in Biotechnology in April. Authors are Mironov, Roger Markwald, of MUSC, Boland, and Gabor Forgacs, of the University of Missouri. Mironov’s work using hamster ovary cells is based on Boland’s work printing biomaterials with modified ink-jet printers. The printers were adapted by washing out the ink cartridges and refilling them with a mixture of animal cells and a non-toxic biodegradable gel. Using a team of students whose backgrounds included electrical engineering and polymer science, Boland’s group altered the printer’s feed systems and reprogrammed the software that controls the viscosity, electrical resistances and temperature of the printing fluids. By printing alternate layers of the gel and clumps of cells onto slides, Boland and Miranov have now demonstrated that 3-D structures can be built up. The gel is removed when the structure is complete, leaving only the living material. Other labs have printed arrays of DNA and proteins, said Boland. But he said this is the first time scientists have printed living tissue. Like printing different colors, placing different types of cells in the ink cartridges should make it possible to create complex structures consisting of multiple cell types such as organs, said Boland. Before than can happen, though, scientists will have to find a way to create circulatory networks to provide oxygen and nutrients to the cells deep inside the structure. “Building the blood supply is the $50 million question,” Boland said.  Eventually, he and Mironov hope it will be possible to print the entire network of arteries, capillaries and veins that nourish organs.  “If everything works as we hope it will, this could be a great contribution to personalized medical care,” said Boland. “Every hospital would have a printer with the components to make a fully functioning organ.” Getting the science and technology to that point, however, could take 10-15 years, they warned. “As exciting as this is, it’s still in the very earliest stages,” said Mironov. A much quicker application could harness the technology to develop tissues for rapid drug testing. “Instead of testing on an organ scientists could do preliminary tests with tissue made especially for the purpose,” said Boland.   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.