The following text is an AI-generated, expert-checked summary of a key research study cited in a feature article from Scientific American’s May 2023 issue: Synthetic Morphology Lets Scientists Create New Life-Forms by Philip Ball.
You can find the study itself here: Review on the Vascularization of Organoids and Organoids-on-a-Chip by Zhao et al., published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology in 2021.
The study of living things, called biological science, has been using human cells to make 3D models of organs in the lab. These models are called organoids and are made by putting cells together and using special designs. But organoids have a problem: they can’t make complicated blood vessel networks like real organs do. This means they can’t get enough oxygen and food to stay alive.
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Xingli Zhao, a scientist from Third Military Medical University in China, and his colleagues looked at how technology has helped create blood vessels in organoids and another type of model called organoids-on-a-chip. He also studied new ways to make blood vessels using 3D and 4D printing.
The research talks about different ways to make blood vessels in organoids both inside and outside the body. It shows that organoids-on-a-chip are a good way to copy the structure and job of human organs. The study also looks at new printing methods, like extruded 3D printing and 4D printing with light, to make tissues with blood vessels and blood vessel-like structures.
In the end, the research says that no method has made blood vessel networks in organoids like those found in real organs. The future goal is to find ways to make working blood vessels in organoids that can carry blood like human blood vessels do. This might need new ways to grow organs for a long time and move important things around while giving the right signals for growth. Using many methods together might be better than just one way to make organoids with working blood vessels. This could lead to fully working models of organs that can be used in many areas.