Printing Technique Creates Effective Skin Equivalent
upstart writes:
The technique is the first of its kind to simulate three layers of skin: the hypodermis, or fatty layer, the dermis, and the epidermis.
"You effectively have three different cell types. They all grow at different speeds," said author Alan Smith. "If you try to produce tri-layered structures, it can be very difficult to provide each of the requirements of each different layer."
To solve this problem, the scientists used suspended layer additive manufacturing (SLAM). They created a gel-like material to support the skin equivalent, twisting and altering the structure of the gel as it formed to create a bed of particles that can then support a second phase of gel injection.
During printing, the skin layers are deposited within the support gel, which holds everything in place. After printing, the team washed away the support material, leaving behind the layered skin equivalent.
If the researchers moved a needle through the supporting gel, it repaired itself faster than other similar techniques. This results in higher resolution printing than previous methods and allows for the printing of complicated skin structures.
Journal Reference:
Richard J. A. Moakes, Jessica J. Senior, Thomas E. Robinson, et al. A suspended layer additive manufacturing approach to the bioprinting of tri-layered skin equivalents [open], APL Bioengineering (DOI: 10.1063/5.0061361)
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