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Researchers Make Blood Vessels Using 3D Sugar Printer

7/3/2012 5:00 PM ET

Blood vessels created using a 3D sugar printer may one day be used to construct whole organs, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT said in a new study.

Study researchers detail how they used a 3D printer to make a blood vessel structure out of sugar using a 3D printer and then coat that structure with living cells. Those cells then take on the form of the vessel to create functional blood vessels that could thrive within living tissue.

The research team was also reportedly able to grown new blood vessels off of the existing vessels. They were not, however, able to connect the created vessel networks to already living blood vessels within living tissue.

The study can be found in the July 1 edition of the journal Nature Materials.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

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