Blood vessels embedded into 3D printed skin

Described in Tissue Engineering Part A, the technique involves creating bioinks made from animal collagen. Endothelial cells which line the inside of blood vessels, and human pericyte cells that wrap around the endothelial cells, are also added. Once printed into skin grafts, the cells were found to start communicating with each other and developing vasculature structures within a few weeks.

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"As engineers working to recreate biology, we've always appreciated and been aware of the fact that biology is far more complex than the simple systems we make in the lab," said research lead Pankaj Karande, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer.

"We were pleasantly surprised to find that, once we start approaching that complexity, biology takes over and starts getting closer and closer to what exists in nature."