Printing Tissue
3D Bioprinting of Vascularized, Heterogeneous Cell-Laden Tissue Constructs

Living organisms always have a complex structure, and must include channels or vasculature for blood flow, which is essential to maintain their life. A new way of forming such structures is to print them, using 3D printing. A team led by Lewis and Mooney has successfully printed both the cells and the matrix material, holding the structure together, directly into the desired shape. This work is an essential first step towards the ultimate goal of directly printing organ structures on demand. The image shows (a) schematic view, (b) optical, and (c) composite fluorescence microscopy images of a heterogeneous engineering tissue construct containing two different types of fibroblasts (blue and green) and endothelial cells (red).