Printers Used in Developing Artificial Blood Vessels
Inspired from functioning of a printer, researcher Dr. Günter Tovar of Fraunhofer had taken up a research of developing man- made blood vessels with the help of printers. The research will be presented at the Hannover Biotechnical Fair in October.
Dr. Tovar has created the artificial blood vessels by joining the 3D printer with multiphoton polymerization. The 3D printers creates anything in a large quantity, therefore it could not develop blood vessels. The researchers used the printer as a base on which the blood vessels were prepared.
The development of polymers in the 3D printing with multiphoton polymerization is stimulated by a laser. The polymers develop in a chain like form, which can be attuned to small scale, resulting in the possibility of blood vessels formation. The researchers aimed to produce such blood vessels, which could match with the actual blood vessels of the human body.
The man-made blood vessels will be used in the transplantation of organs. There were many people who required organ transplantation treatment. In Germany, 11,000 people were recorded to be waiting for their chance for organ transplantation.
Dr. Tovar said, "The individual techniques are already functioning and they are presently working in the test phase; the prototype for the combined system is being built".
