ARTIFICIAL TISSUES AND SCAFFOLDING A BME 281 presentation by: Zachary Brown

WHAT IS THERE PURPOSE? Today, the waiting lists for donated organs is very high, and scientists are trying to decrease the wait time, and increase the rate of successful transplants in the process. Artificial tissues and scaffolds are synthetically created to mimic the structure of an organ. The less complex the organ, the easier and faster time it takes to recreate the organ needed for that patient’s body

THE CREATION PROCESS There are 2 ways in which scaffolds are made to create the base of the organ: taking a pre-existing non-functional same organ and decellularizing it into a hallow base of its membranous cells Or Synthetically creating one using nano-fibrous structures that act like the matrix which makes up the collagen fibers of bones, blood vessels, etc. scientists can create these structures using the processes of: Electro-spinning- larger size matrix form Phase separation-smaller size matrix form Self-assembly- average size matrix form

THE CREATION PROCESS PT.2 To create compatibility with the patient, “donor cells” or pre-existing cells that make up the healthy part of their body/ specific organ is biopsied and cultivated. They then use the scaffolds as the base to which these cells will grow, reproduce and regenerate the organ. The scaffolds will keep the organs shape and then bio-degrade once fully grown.

RESULTS As of 2009, artificially created skin is being sold in Europe at 34 euros per unit (no sure of unit dimensions) by a company called Fraunhofer-Gesellschaf. Between , Wake Forest University artificially created and transplanted 5 urethras that were successful in testing over the next 6 years. Artificial kidney was created by a doctor at the University of Michigan that passed when transplanted in sheep

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES Pros Lower rates of failure than transplants from a foreign donor Can decrease the amount of waiting for a transplant from a donor Cons More complex the organ, the more difficult and larger it takes to create Not successfully tested on humans for certain organs Regular donor transplants are still the current option for wait list patients

FUTURE The Bio-printer- 3-D printed organs: no longer needing the use of these scaffolds to construct organs Organovo TM has already created meniscus knee cartilage from 3-D printer Within the next 20 years, 3-D printing is projected to be able to create organs

REFERENCES Mertsching, H., Walles, T., Hofmann, M., Schanz, J., Knapp, W. H. (2005). Engineering of a vascularized scaffold for artificial tissue and organ generation, Biomaterials,26 (33), Doi: /j.biomaterials Smith, L. A., & Ma, P. X. (2004). Nano-fibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering. Colloids And Surfaces B (Biointerfaces), 39(3), doi: /j.colsurfb.2003.l Thilmany, J. J. (2012). Printed Life. Mechanical Engineering, 134(1), [image] Lazarova, I. ( 2013). Advances in bio-artificial and 3D-printed organs.