This may be technology at its coolest . Or grossest . Or both . We ’d say both . Scientists in Madrid have figured out a way to produce functional sheets of human peel using a 3D printer . They published their results in the journalBiofabrication .
scientist have really seized 3D impression as a solution to all kinds of problem . In the last few years , they ’ve developed techniques for printing cardiacstents , artificialrat modelsto spare real informer from dissection — evenhuman jawbone and ears . Other researchers have been hard at work growinghuman skinin the laboratory .
The squad in Madrid decided to put the two concept together . As you could imagine , this was not a simple subject of charge up the ink and hitting a button . The team construct a brand - new type of bioprinter that use human plasm as a medium , or scaffolding .
Co - author Juan Francisco del Cañizo is a surgeon at Madrid ’s Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón . He said it was tricky to create an automated unconscious process that could create a friendly environs for skin to grow . “ screw how to mix the biological component , in what conditions to figure out with them so that the cells do n’t drop , and how to correctly fix the product is critical to the system , ” hetoldThe Independent .
The printed skin include the same functional bed as the home - grown variety : a tough , cuticle - like out layer ; a thick in-between level ; and a layer of collagen - bring about cell to make the skin stretchable and warm .
The enquiry team consider their new skin printer has immense potential for helping burn patients and other mass who necessitate cutis transplant . The printing machine could let in the patient ' own cellular phone in the plasma medium , which would significantly lessen the betting odds that their physical structure would reject the unexampled skin .
Animal advocates see the skin as a fortune to put an close to decorative companies’animal testing , which currently relies on rabbits , guinea pigs , mouse , and dogs assurrogatesfor human skin .
A bioengineering house holler the BioDan Group has already express an involvement in mass - bring on the skin printers .
