3D printing technology could bring the end of drug testing on animals one step closer

A study using a 3D printing technique to create tiny human blood vessel structures could help eliminate the use of animals to test new drugs.

The new method called PRINCESS (PRINting Cell Embedded Sacrificial Strategy) is based on a special DNA hydrogel that serves as a biolubricant. This makes it possible to print extremely precise vascular structures that are superior to previous approaches in terms of their complexity and functionality. The ability to create such networks is crucial for the development of thick tissue, a key goal of regenerative medicine.

Professor Will Shu, Hay Chair and head of a world leading research group at the University of Strathclyde said: “Animal testing is not always a good predictor of human response to a drug, so there is a need to develop a more realistic human testing mechanism, and microvasculature is a key facet of that. The ability to build intricate vascular networks is crucial for the creation of thick tissues, one of the grand challenges — or “Holy Grails”— of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Our new strategy offers an exciting new way for producing engineered human tissues or mini organs in the lab, that could eventually replace the use of animals.”

The research also shows promising applications in modeling diseases such as heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Such models could enable new approaches to the development and testing of therapies.

The project was developed in collaboration with Tsinghua University in China and was funded by UKRI and NC3Rs, among others, organizations dedicated to reducing animal testing. The advances mark an important step in the use of 3D printing to produce biological tissues, with potentially far-reaching implications for