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Bioprinting is the most promising area of medicine of the 21st century, made possible thanks to the advent of a 3D printer

Bioprinting is layer-by-layer volumetric printing of living tissues for transplantology. Using different types of lipids and proteins, scientists can actually create pieces of artificial skin from literally nothing, which then, growing inside the body, will become not just “like the real thing,” but real. Bioprinting usually occurs in several stages.

Stage 1: determining the parameters of the cell tissue that needs to be printed.

Stage 2: preparing raw materials for the 3D printer. For one printing nozzle, a solution of lipids in oil is prepared. For others - proteins.

Stage 3: preparing the base for printing (in the picture it’s a bath of water).

Stage 4: layer-by-layer printing of cells - first a layer of cells with water is printed, then a layer of protein cells, then again cells with water. The diameter of one cell is 50 nanometers.

Stage 5: activation of the cell layer using a weak electric field.

Stage 6: the tissue is ready for transplantation.

Fixed - water cells, the main working material for creating an artificial “muscle”

Adjustable - cells with lipids responsible for intercellular connections

Aqueous - water

Monolayer - monolayer culture

Blue cells are water cells

Red - cells with lipids

How does 3D printing of a cell work?