Biofabrication
Introduction
Whenever one anticipates fixing any kind of orthopaedic injury, replacing any worn-out joint or rectifying anomalies of the skeletal system, metal implants are considered to be the only available option. Although the implants seem strong enough, a repetitive cycle of stress caused by the bodily movements can cause it to break inside the body. Another major problem with these implants is that they can only work to support solid structures like a bone. They provide no solution if the tissue, cartilage or blood vessel surrounding the bone is injured. These drawbacks lead to the development of biofabrication.
Biofabrication can be described as automated production of tissues, organs and organoids to resolve challenges in medicine and healthcare. It is a technology which can be used for repair of wide range of tissues and organs ranging from skin, nervous tissue, cartilage, vascularized bone and blood vessels to complete organs such as the heart, kidney, liver and bladder. Not only that, it has also provided an insight towards the manufacture of motifs and microfluidic devices. This will not only reduce the cost but also time and effort required in the process of drug discovery.
Methodology
This technique uses 3D printing to combine raw materials such as gels, cells, fibres, proteins and other biological materials to print a scaffold. The injured or diseased region is first scanned to acquire an idea of the outline of the scaffold which is then printed and stem cells from the patient’s body are added to it. The scaffold-stem cell matrix is then implanted in the patient’s body. Scaffolding is necessary to allow the growth and differentiation of stem cells in a structural manner. Over time as the stem cells repair the injury, the scaffold material keeps on degrading. In this way, there is no rejection of tissue by the body and because of degradability of the scaffold, minimal side effects are seen.
Challenges and future scope
Although there are many challenges to the field of biofabrication such as consistent, reliable, and multi-sourced starting materials which differ along with tissue types; coordinated standards and regulatory pathways for biomedical products; advanced, modular, closed, and automated platform technologies and quality-control systems. Yet this discipline holds prospects of combining the most favourable attributes of technology for the pathogenesis of important human diseases or to select an optimal pharmaceutical treatment.
References
1. Living cell products as wound healing biomaterials, M. Tenenhaus, … G. Mulder, in Wound Healing Biomaterials, 2016 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/biofabrication)
2. What is biofabrication, biofabrication in master’s degree(https://biofabdegree.net/what-is-biofabrication-2/)
3. Trends in biotechnology( https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/home)
4. What Causes Metal Implants to Break Inside the Body, By Jonathan Cluett, MD, Medically reviewed by Stuart Hershman, MD on July 03, 2020(https://www.verywellhealth.com/broken-metal-implants-in-your-body-2549321 )
5. Biofabrication 3D printing human parts| The feed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9wH0b4meOs)
