![]() Senior author Dr Linna Zhou (Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford) said: ‘Our droplet printing technique provides a means to engineer living 3D tissues with desired architectures, which brings us closer to the creation of personalized implantation treatments for brain injury.’ ![]() The new advance builds on the team’s decade-long track record in inventing and patenting 3D printing technologies for synthetic tissues and cultured cells. ![]() Besides their potential for repairing brain injuries, these engineered tissues might be used in drug evaluation, studies of brain development, and to improve our understanding of the basis of cognition. Image credit: Yongcheng Jin, University of Oxford.The researchers now intend to further refine the droplet printing technique to create complex multi-layered cerebral cortex tissues that more realistically mimic the human brain’s architecture. The implanted neural cells were labelled with fluorescent markers (blue and red in the image). In culture, the printed tissues maintained their layered cellular architecture for weeks, as indicated by the expression of layer-specific biomarkers.ģD-printed two-layer cerebral cortical tissue visualised within a mouse brain slice. The cells were then suspended in solution to generate two ‘bioinks’, which were then printed to produce a two-layered structure. The hiPSCs were differentiated into neural progenitor cells for two different layers of the cerebral cortex, by using specific combinations of growth factors and chemicals. A key advantage of using hiPSCs for tissue repair is that they can be easily derived from cells harvested from patients themselves, and therefore would not trigger an immune response. The cortical structure was made from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), which have the potential to produce the cell types found in most human tissues. When implanted into mouse brain slices, the cells showed convincing structural and functional integration with the host tissue. In this new study, the University of Oxford researchers fabricated a two-layered brain tissue by 3D printing human neural stem cells. Up to now, however, there has been no method to ensure that implanted stem cells mimic the architecture of the brain. Tissue regenerative therapies, especially those in which patients are given implants derived from their own stem cells, could be a promising route to treat brain injuries in the future. ![]() Currently, there are no effective treatments for severe brain injuries, leading to serious impacts on quality of life. For example, each year, around 70 million people globally suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), with 5 million of these cases being severe or fatal. Lead author Dr Yongcheng Jin (Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford)īrain injuries, including those caused by trauma, stroke and surgery for brain tumours, typically result in significant damage to the cerebral cortex (the outer layer of the human brain), leading to difficulties in cognition, movement and communication. ![]() The work will provide a unique opportunity to explore the workings of the human cortex and, in the long term, it will offer hope to individuals who sustain brain injuries. This advance marks a significant step towards the fabrication of materials with the full structure and function of natural brain tissues. ![]()
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