Bioprinting Of Skin And Bones During Surgery Can Heal Faster

Generally, repairing the injuries caused to the skin and bones located in the skull and skin is tough as there are many layers of various types of tissues present. However, the researchers have recently found to use bioprinting at the time of surgery to help repair such defects. The latest study may lead to quick and reliable techniques of healing of bones and skin. According to lead researcher Ibrahim T. Ozbolat from Engineering Science and Mechanics, Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery, this study has been proved to be clinically significant. In case of composite defects, the repairing of soft and hard tissues is difficult while in the craniofacial area the results have to be perfect.

For fixing a hole in the skull, the soft tissues and bone is required from another body part or cadaver. To keep the bone alive, the soft tissue taken must properly supply blood to the site for further repairing the skin and soft tissue. The team made use of droplet bioprinting of cells and carrier materials and extrusion bioprinting to print soft tissue and bone. It has been found that there is no surgical method to repair soft and hard tissue until now. It is the reason bioprinting is found to help repair the bone or epidermis defects, all at once.

The new technology has proved clinically successful in addressing bone replacement without any toxicity. The hard tissue ink comprises of chitosan, collagen, nano-hydroxyapatite, etc. and mesenchymal stem cells. This ink can extrude at ambient temperature and also can heat up to the body temperature for creating cross-links between collagen and other components in the ink without any cross-linker additive. In the droplet printing, the researchers used soft tissues instead of the bones to create thin layers. Furthermore, the researchers added fibrinogen and collagen in between the cross-linkers and growth enhancers to bioprint soft tissue layers with different compositions. In addition, the vascularizing compounds and proper blood flow are important for keeping the tissues alive, which researchers are currently focusing on.