作者：Utkan Demirci 来源：Biomicrofluids 2011-7-13 11:18:59
来自全球顶级学府、哈佛大学医学院、布莱根妇女医院（Brigham and Women's Hospital）的研究人员通过新型自动化生物打印方法实现了胚胎干细胞的生物打印（bioprinting）。这一研究成果公布在美国物理联合会出版的《生物微流体》（Biomicrofluids）杂志上。
领导这一研究的是哈佛医学院医学生物声学微机电系统实验室的Utkan Demirci博士，他获得了我国2010年度第一批外国青年学者研究基金资助。
随着科学技术的不断发展，三维打印机应用领域的不断扩展，现在科学家已经开发出了能打印出皮肤、软骨、骨头和身体其他器官的三维“生物打印机”。这种打印机能通过将材料先逐行铺开后逐层垂直铺展的方式来打印，通过内置的激光扫描仪快速扫描受伤部位，分析伤口的位置、大小、深浅等，相关扫描信息被转化为三维数字图像发送给打印机，打印机能据此计算出需要喷射多少层皮肤细胞来让伤口恢复到原初的状态，并打印出皮肤，当喷在伤口处。
据EurekAlert报道，在这篇文章中，研究人员则通延展其应用声波从液体中产生液滴的开创性声学工作，获得了胚体形成的早期关键时期的重要研究成果。
在这项研究中，使胚体正确形成且无机械损伤是保持干细胞具有能发育成任何所需组织之惊人能力的关键。研究人员这种新的自动化生物打印方法似乎比利用传统的“挂滴”手工移液的方法在这方面做得更好。研究人员认为掌握在高通量环境中重复可靠地操纵细胞，无论是对单液滴中的单个或数以万计的细胞而言，都有可能使医学和工程领域内的许多问题获得潜在的解决方案。
这项研究改善了液滴尺寸均匀度及控制液滴尺寸的能力，并且实现一个可以打印含有单细胞或者含有数以万计细胞的单液滴的可扩展系统，液滴形成的速度也得到了提高——新系统提供每秒160滴的速度，相比而言挂滴法需10分钟。下一步研究人员将评估这两种方法对细胞功能的不同影响
Embryonic stem cell bioprinting for uniform. and controlled size embryoid body formation
Feng Xu, BanuPriya Sridharan, ShuQi Wang, Umut Atakan Gurkan, Brian Syverud, and Utkan Demirci
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent with multilineage potential to differentiate into virtually all cell types in the organism and thus hold a great promise for cell therapy and regenerative medicine. In vitro differentiation of ESCs starts with a phase known as embryoid body (EB) formation. EB mimics the early stages of embryogenesis and plays an essential role in ESC differentiation in vitro. EB uniformity and size are critical parameters that directly influence the phenotype expression of ESCs. Various methods have been developed to form. EBs, which involve natural aggregation of cells. However, challenges persist to form. EBs with controlled size, shape, and uniformity in a reproducible manner. The current hanging-drop methods are labor intensive and time consuming. In this study, we report an approach to form. controllable, uniform-sized EBs by integrating bioprinting technologies with the existing hanging-drop method. The approach presented here is simple, robust, and rapid. We present significantly enhanced EB size uniformity compared to the conventional manual hanging-drop method.
m-sized EBs by integrating bioprinting technologies with the existing hanging-drop method. The approach presented here is simple, robust, and rapid. We present significantly enhanced EB size uniformity compared to the conventional manual hanging-drop method.
