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Dec. 3rd, 2004 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingMedical research team believes ink jet printers could be modified to 'print' new skin for burn victims
Looking for a place to toss your old inkjet printers? A team of scientists working to create human tissue may have a good use for them. Inkjets that are ten years old, they say, are perfectly suited to create sheets of human skin and other tissue that one day may help burn victims and even manufacture organs.
Vladimir Mironov, director of the Shared Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the Medical University of South Carolina, is one of the scientists who has rigged Hewlett-Packard and Canon inkjet printers to shoot out proteins instead of ink, and to capture tissue on specialized gel instead of paper. Older printers work well because their spray nozzles have larger holes and are less likely to damage fragile cells. It would be great to have a use for these old printers instead of searching for a place to recycle them safely.
The "skin printing" research, although in early stages, aims to replace the current skin-graft method, which can lead to postoperative complications, says Anthony Atala, a researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Today, burn victims receive skin grafts from unburned parts of their body or from skin tissue artificially grown in a lab. But trouble can arise, particularly when the body rejects grafts that don't exactly replicate human tissue. Also, grafted skin can tighten over time, causing discomfort and itching. Skin made from inkjet printers may come closer to replicating human tissue, Atala says, because it is created using skin-tissue cells. While skin printing begins with the same process of cultivating cells used in skin grafting, Atala says that the printers create skin more efficiently. "We're seeing a better-quality skin that will cover more area," he says. "The quality of the tissue is higher."
Looking for a place to toss your old inkjet printers? A team of scientists working to create human tissue may have a good use for them. Inkjets that are ten years old, they say, are perfectly suited to create sheets of human skin and other tissue that one day may help burn victims and even manufacture organs.
Vladimir Mironov, director of the Shared Tissue Engineering Laboratory at the Medical University of South Carolina, is one of the scientists who has rigged Hewlett-Packard and Canon inkjet printers to shoot out proteins instead of ink, and to capture tissue on specialized gel instead of paper. Older printers work well because their spray nozzles have larger holes and are less likely to damage fragile cells. It would be great to have a use for these old printers instead of searching for a place to recycle them safely.
The "skin printing" research, although in early stages, aims to replace the current skin-graft method, which can lead to postoperative complications, says Anthony Atala, a researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Today, burn victims receive skin grafts from unburned parts of their body or from skin tissue artificially grown in a lab. But trouble can arise, particularly when the body rejects grafts that don't exactly replicate human tissue. Also, grafted skin can tighten over time, causing discomfort and itching. Skin made from inkjet printers may come closer to replicating human tissue, Atala says, because it is created using skin-tissue cells. While skin printing begins with the same process of cultivating cells used in skin grafting, Atala says that the printers create skin more efficiently. "We're seeing a better-quality skin that will cover more area," he says. "The quality of the tissue is higher."