medicalxpress.com wrote: Organovo announces ability to print 3D human liver tissue
(Medical Xpress)—Organovo Holdings, Inc., a company that designs and
creates functional human tissue has announced at this year's Experimental
Biology Conference that it has developed a 3D printing technique that is able
to produce small samples of human liver tissue. They claim their new process
allows for printing 500 micron thick liver tissue, amounting to 20 cell layers,
which is able to produce cholesterol and some of the enzymes produced by
the natural liver. The liver samples produced, the company said, can be used by
researchers looking to test the efficacy of new drugs designed to treat liver
diseases or to test side effects on the liver of drugs created for other purposes.
Currently, companies that develop drugs to treat liver disease must rely on 2D tissue
samples, which most admit are not optimal. For that reason, many drugs that pass
such tests eventually fail trials in live patients. As a result, pharmaceutical companies
have been eager to find a better replacement.
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The process of creating human tissue is one still very much under development.
Researchers use various chemicals to coax cells taken from real livers and stem cells
to grow tissue that resembles the real thing. Unfortunately, until now, the tissues that
result have been just single layers of cells, which flatten when placed in a Petri dish.
And while such tissue does generally produce some of the same enzymes as real
livers, allowing researchers to see what impact a drug has, most are not near the level
of a real liver—the samples also generally only live for a couple of days. In contrast, the
new samples printed by Organovo, the company claims, can live for as long as five
days or more.
Chief Technology Officer for the company, Sharon Presnell explained to those at
the conference that Organovo's 3D printing process involves printing out two different
types of liver cells—hepatocytes and stellates—along with the linings of blood cells.
The result is tissue that the company claims looks, feels and in many ways, behaves
just like real human liver tissue. They say it can produce albumin, cholesterol
and cytochrome P450s (enzymes that metabolize drugs)—and because of that is much
better suited for testing new drugs. She added that the new 3D printing process marks
another step towards the creation of full-size human livers for implanting in people to
replace those that have failed, and even went so far as to predict that such technology
will come to pass in her lifetime.
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Science...Organovo wrote: Organovo Describes First Fully Cellular 3D Bioprinted Liver Tissue
SAN DIEGO, April 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Organovo Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX ONVO) ("Organovo"),
a creator and manufacturer of functional, three-dimensional human tissues for
medical research and therapeutic applications, presented at the 2013 Experimental Biology conference
in Boston, Massachusetts data on the company's in vitro three-dimensional liver.
"We have achieved excellent function in a fully cellular 3D human liver tissue.
With Organovo's 3D bioprinted liver tissues, we have demonstrated the power
of bioprinting to create functional human tissue that replicates human biology
better than what has come before.
Not only can these tissues be a first step towards larger 3D liver, laboratory tests
with these samples have the potential to be game changing for medical research.
We believe these models will prove superior in their ability to provide predictive data
for drug discovery and development, better than animal models or current cell models,"
said Keith Murphy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Organovo.
For the first time, human liver tissues have been generated that are truly three-dimensional,
being up to 500 microns in thickness in the smallest dimension, and consisting of multiple cell
types arranged in defined spatial patterns that reproduce key elements of native tissue
architecture.
The tissues, fabricated using Organovo's proprietary NovoGen™ bioprinting platform,
are highly reproducible and exhibit superior performance compared to standard 2D controls.
Dr. Sharon Presnell, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research
and Development, stated, "We've combined three key features that set our 3D tissues
apart from 2D cell-culture models.
First, the tissues are not a monolayer of cells; our tissues are approximately 20 cell layers thick.
Second, the multi-cellular tissues closely reproduce the distinct cellular patterns found in native tissue.
Finally, our tissues are highly cellular, comprised of cells and the proteins those cells produce,
without dependence on biomaterials or scaffold for three-dimensionality.
They actually look and feel like living tissues."
Key findings from Organovo's research include:
About Organovo Holdings, Inc.
- NovoGen Bioprinting enabled reproducible fabrication of architecturally and compositionally defined 3D tissues into standard tissue culture formats, using a wide array of cellular inputs, including primary human hepatocytes and hepatocyte-like cells derived from stem/progenitor sources.
- Bioprinted 3D liver tissues exhibited several key features that remained stable over time:
- Tissue-like cellular density
- Controlled spatial positioning of specific cell types in x, y, and z axes
- Multi-layered architecture reaching up to 500 microns thickness, with tissues comprised of up to 20 cell layers
- These novel 3D liver tissues possessed critical liver functions, including albumin production, fibrinogen and transferrin production, and inducible cytochrome P450 enzymatic activities, including CYP 1A2 and CYP 3A4. Cholesterol biosynthesis was also demonstrated for the first time in a multi-cellular 3D human liver system in vitro, suggesting utility in the study of interventional strategies aimed at regulation of cholesterol secretion.
- Albumin production by 3D bioprinted liver tissues was 5-9 times greater than matched 2D controls, suggesting superior functionality.
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Safe Harbor Statement
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Fuck yeah...This could cut development cost of liver drugs by large margin.
And just imagine the ability to print new organs...