Cells by measure
3D micro-printing opens the way to the creation of custom cells
Alexander Noskov, Hi-tech+
Experts from MIT and the Stevens Institute of Technology have improved the resolution of 3D printing by an order of magnitude - up to a dozen microns – and describe one of the most interesting applications of microlattices: the creation of cells with specified properties. It will transform scientific research and medicine.
A team from two American universities has developed a breakthrough 3D printing technology with a resolution an order of magnitude smaller than analogues and applied it to create lattices for growing cells of a certain shape. Since the form in this case often determines the functionality, this opens the way to the creation of cells with specified properties, according to the MIT website (New 3-D printing approach makes cell-scale lattice structures).
The process is based on the application of an electromagnetic field to microscopic droplets leaving the nozzles of a 3D printer. The process is called "electrically conductive melting". Due to the effect of the field at the output, fibers are obtained with a thickness of 10 microns, that is, millionths of a meter, whereas the usual limit of miniaturization is at the boundary of 100-150 microns.
But microstructure printing technology is only a small part of the team's research.
The approach has found a unique application: micron-scale lattices can be used to cultivate unique cells. Scientists printed a series of designs and, using a microscope and AI algorithms, analyzed how cells populate them. According to researcher Philippos Turlomousis, they were able to identify porous structures that lead to the formation of a colony of cells of a given shape.
Newborn fibroblasts grown on a flat substrate and on microlattices with different weaving (from an article in Microsystems and Nanoengineering – VM).
Turlomusis explains that the microcircus controls the focal contacts of the forming cells, with which they "communicate" with the surrounding tissue. And the form and interaction in this microcosm often determine the functional purpose.
The team is confident that shape management is the way to design cells with great accuracy and reproducibility of results.
Cells grown in this way have another important advantage for scientific research: observations have shown that they retain properties and characteristics much longer than cultures grown on a two-dimensional substrate.
The article on the results of the work was published in the journal Microsystems and Nanoengineering (Tourlomousis et al., Machine learning methodology of cell confinement in melt electrowritten three-dimensional biomaterial substrates).
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