Monterrey, Mexico.- Getting human skin printed in the laboratory could help discover new drugs or study aging and a more peculiar apparatus could achieve it, reports Business Insider.
It is a Lego machine designed by the University of Cardiff capable of bioprinting human skin in 3D, according to an article published in The Conversation by the scientists responsible for the project.
“We decided to tackle the problem by building our own low-cost and easily accessible printer, capable of creating human tissue samples using one of the most popular toys in the world”, report the authors.
Its technology consists of loading the Lego machine’s cartridges with bioink, a material that contains living cells.
Once programmed, the bioprinter prints the bioink loaded with cells to form three-dimensional structures that intend to reproduce the complex composition of the human skin.
Unlike two-dimensional cell cultures on plates, bioprinters make it easier to make the leap to architecture in three dimensions and, therefore, offer more realistic models.
The scientists opted for the Lego blocks because they are a product “extremely cheap and versatile, manufactured with great precision and with standardized pieces accessible all over the world”.
The unknown of the scientists rooted in itself would be possible to design a bioprinter capable of printing soft biological material.
The team put their hands to work using Lego standard pieces, the mechanical sub-brand Lego Mindstorms and a laboratory pump, a usual device under investigation.
The result was completely successful, as its tailor-made “juguete” is capable of printing layers of skin cells, with a view to creating a real scale skin model.
It can also be modified using different types of nozzles to print different types of cells, thus creating a wide variety of complexities in the fabric samples.
Among potential applications are the study of both healthy and sick skin, as well as research into new treatments, therapies and drugs for skin diseases.
In addition, anyone can replicate the 3D bioprinter of Lego, because it is an open source project. The instructions appear in detail in the Advanced Materials magazine.
