At the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (HLI) at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the team led by cardiologist Zachary Laksman has produced living heart tissue using a self-developed 3D bioprinter. The goal is the reproducible creation of human tissue models for preclinical drug testing and personalized medicine. The work was carried out in collaboration with the University of British Columbia; early-career researchers Hattie Luo and Ardin Sacayanan played key roles.
Technically, the process is based on blood-derived reprogrammed stem cells that are differentiated into cardiomyocytes and suspended in a bio-ink. The printing process balances shear forces and pressure spikes so that cells survive extrusion, while the carrier material is removed from the construct after printing. According to the team, commercial bioprinters proved too inflexible, so they built their own with customizable hardware, firmware, and material feed.
“The idea of 3D printing tissue is one of the most exciting areas of regenerative medicine in the world right now,” says Dr. Laksman.
The printed samples are a few centimeters in size and suitable for high-throughput screening with varying dosages.
Because the tissues are genetically matched to the donor, patient-specific responses can be compared and demographic differences systematically examined.
One open challenge remains the vascularization of larger structures. HLI researcher Yuan Yao is working in parallel on methods for vascular biofabrication.
“There is a lot of creativity, and there are a lot of doors that can be opened with 3D printing,” says Dr. Yao.
A printable organ is still a long way off; in the short to medium term, realistic goals are printable cardiac patches and robust testing platforms that reduce animal experiments and shorten development cycles in cardiology.
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