Life like liver tissue 3D printed in lab

Los Angeles: Scientists have developed a 3D printed tissue that closely mimics the human liver's sophisticated structure and function, which could be used for patient-specific drug testing and disease modelling.

Researchers said the advance could help pharmaceutical companies save time and money when developing new drugs. "We've made a tool that pharmaceutical companies could use to do pilot studies on their new drugs, and they won't have to wait until animal or human trials to test a drug's safety and efficacy on patients," said Shaochen Chen, professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Existing liver models for drug screening so far lack the complex micro-architecture and diverse cell makeup. The researchers engineered a human liver tissue model that more closely resembles the real thing - a diverse combination of liver cells and supporting cells systematically organised in a hexagonal pattern.

The researchers used a novel bioprinting technology, which can rapidly produce complex 3D microstructures that mimic the sophisticated features found in biological tissues. Their model also expressed a relatively higher level of a key enzyme that is considered to be involved in metabolising many of the drugs administered to patients.