*NEWS*PAGING DR. INKJET !

[Anonymous]

paging dr. inkjet !

Inkjets are enrolling in medical school and may someday be
repairing fractured arms.
Scientists at the University of Manchester in England are trying to develop a
technique through which inkjet nozzles will spray live human cells onto a
patient. Ideally,this would speed up the healing process because doctors could
seed a patient with replacement tissue that would grow to the size and shape
required. The seed cells could also be grown from a previously harvested sample
from the patient, thereby reducing the chances of donor rejection.

So far, the Manchester group has employed the technique to spray (and grow)
human fibroblasts and osteoblasts, the cells responsible for forming,
respectively, muscle tissue and bone, according to Brian Derby, professor of
material science at the University of Manchester. They have also grown bovine
chondrocytes, or cartilage cells.

“We are interested in tissue engineering cartilage, bone and blood vessels.
Skin is an application but not our main focus even if the press have picked it
up,” Derby said in an e-mail. “My guess would be bone replacement as the first
application.”

Doctors might start using these techniques in five to 10 years, he noted.
More near-term applications could involve developing tools for the biotech
industry. Similar inkjet research is being conducted in Japan and at Clemson
University in South Carolina.

So far, the technique hasn’t been tried on a living patient. Instead,
researchers have sprayed live cells into “wells” containing nutrients. The cells
land intact and multiply within the first 24 hours. Derby’s group has also used
the inkjets to create scaffolds–tiny, fibrous structures containing cells that
help start and control tissue regeneration.

Different cell types can likely also be mixed, which in turn would allow
doctors to mimic more complex tissue functions.

The group is working with Xaar a British inkjet manufacturer, to refine the
equipment for human cell delivery. The cells, delivered in droplets of fluid,
fly at about one foot per second and can accelerate at about 1,000 G-forces.

“It is surprising that cells do survive these conditions but they appear to
do so. This needs a lot more work to ensure that the cells are not altered in
some way by the delivery process,” he wrote.

[Author]

April 21, 2005 at 10:01 AM