Aspiration of spheroids used to 3D print artificial tissues

According to Penn State University’s Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, tissue spheroids have been increasingly used as building blocks for fabrication of tissues, but their precise bioprinting has been a major limitation.

"In addition, these spheroids have been primarily bioprinted in a scaffold-free manner and could not be applied for fabrication with a scaffold," said Ozbolat, Penn State’s Hartz Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

Bioprinting breakthrough could lead to artificial tissues on demand

Bioprinting technique gives additive advantage to tissue engineering

Scaffolding is necessary for applications in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, and in fabrication of microphysiological systems for disease modelling or drug screening.

Ozbolat and his team used aspiration-assisted bioprinting along with conventional micro-valve printing to create homogeneous tissues and tissues containing a variety of cells.

As demonstrated in the video below, aspiration-assisted bioprinting uses suction to move tiny microscopic spheroids. Aspiration-assisted bioprinting picks up the tissue spheroid, holds the suction on the spheroid until it is placed in exactly the proper location and then releases it. The researchers report their findings in Science Advances.