New Handheld 3D Printer Can Print Human Skin Within Minutes
Researchers from University of Toronto have developed a new 3D printer that can create incredibly even layers of skin tissue. The printer is portable and lightweight and more importantly completes its job within two minutes or less. This skin could be used to cover and heal deep wounds in patients.
While many tissue-engineered skins are already available in the market, most of them lack complex features and practical application. The new product, on the other hand, replicates natural characteristics of human skin. The 3D skin printer forms tissue sheet with vertical stripes of “bio-ink” that run along the inside of each sheet. The strips are made up of protein-based biomaterials including collagen, the most abundant protein in the dermis, and fibrin, a protein involved in wound healing.
“Most current 3D bioprinters are bulky, work at low speeds, are expensive and are incompatible with the clinical application.” Professor Axel Guenther, one of the three researchers involved in the study said.
Currently, the best option for healing deep skin wounds is split-thickness skin grafting. This surgical procedure involves removing the healthy donor skin and transplanting it to an area of the body where the skin has been lost. But the process is quite risky. A large wound needs more healthy skin to replace all three skin layers – the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis – and sufficient graft skin is rarely available. This leaves wounded area uncovered and lead to poor outcomes. Researchers believe their 3D skin printer can overcome these barriers and can also improve the skin-healing process which is a major step forward.
“Our skin printer promises to tailor tissues to specific patients and wound characteristics,” said lead researcher Navid Hakimi. “And it’s very portable.”
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