Germany successfully developed artificial blood vessels using 3D printing technology

Scientists develop artificial blood vessels

German scientists have successfully developed an artificial blood vessel using 3D printing technology, which is expected to be used in human trials and drug testing.

With the rapid development of biomedical technology, scientists have successfully created small human organs such as artificial intestines and artificial trachea. However, the manufacture of large artificial organs has frequently encountered bottlenecks. The main reason is the lack of corresponding technology for manufacturing capillaries, which makes it impossible to transport the necessary nutrients to large artificial organs and maintain their normal survival and operation.

After years of unremitting exploration, this problem has now been solved by scientists at the Frauhof Institute in Germany. They used chemical polymer materials combined with biological molecules that can effectively resist rejection to produce a special "printing ink". The printed material can form an elastic solid after chemical reaction, which makes it easier for scientists to sculpt it into 3D artificial blood vessels according to the structure of human blood vessels.

In fact, the precision of 3D printing technology is amazing. In order to create the most similar artificial blood vessels, scientists also used two-photon polymerization technology, using laser light to stimulate the cross-linking of artificial blood vessel material molecules, and then implanted the formed blood vessels into the cell wall.

It is reported that this research result will strongly promote the manufacture of large human organs. Although the dream of transplanting artificial organs is still far away, the rapid development of human organ manufacturing technology can bring more effective and humane experimental methods to human medical research, such as using artificial organs to replace animals for experiments when developing new drugs.