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IISc researchers create artificial blood vessels to be used as grafts to repair damaged blood vessels

Nandita Vijaysimha, Bengaluru
Monday, September 9, 2024, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has created artificial blood vessels that closely resemble real ones. These could be used as grafts or replacements for blocked, injured or damaged blood vessels.

The Institute’s departments of Materials Engineering and Bioengineering led by Kaushik Chatterjee and Amit Nain with a team representing Akshat Joshi, Souvik Debnath, Saswat Choudhury, Jobin Thomas, Jitendra Satija and Chih-Ching Huang went on to develop a specially formulated nano-engineered hydrogel ink that was first printed into sheets. These 3D-printed flat sheets self-fold into tubular structures when immersed in a calcium chloride solution.

The team coated the surface of the vessels with gelatin, to allow cells to stick to it. The gel formulation was chemically modified prior to 3D printing to give the printed structures anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties, along with very low clotting potential and significant bio-compatibility.

The researchers stated 3D printing allows precise design but the static nature of the objects makes it a poor choice for applications such as scaffolds that can support the growth and functioning of cells and tissues. This is where 4D printing is adopted to resolve this by adding a fourth dimension to the design process. In 4D printing, special materials that can change their structure when exposed to stimuli like heat, light, or chemicals are used.

Dr Kaushik Chatterjee, associate professor, Materials Engineering, IISc, told Pharmabiz that the research spanned over one and half years. This work was aided by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) sponsored Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Faculty Programme, besides support from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India.

Four-dimensional (4D) printing of hydrogels enabled the fabrication of complex scaffold geometries out of static parts. Although current 4D fabrication strategies are promising for creating vascular parts such as tubes, developing branched networks or tubular junctions is still challenging. Here, for the first time, a 4D printing approach is employed to fabricate T-shaped perfusable bifurcation using an extrusion-based multi-material 3D printing process, stated Amit Nain, first author in a research paper titled’ A 4D printed nano-engineered super bioactive hydrogel scaffold…’ published in the Royal Society of Chemistry: Journal of Chemistry B 2024.

As part of the research, the team created a computational model that predicts shape deformations for constructs prepared using the nano-engineered hydrogel formulations. They used a predictive modelling-based approach to evaluate how different designs can lead to tubes of different shapes, such as bifurcated vessels seen inside the human body.

Current grafts require additional surgeries, carry risks of rejection and disease transmission, and are prone to clotting and other complications. These artificial blood vessels are a step forward in solving these challenges, said the researchers.

The 3D models designed in SolidWorks, Dassault Systems were converted to StereoLithography format and then imported into Slic3r software: Repetier Host, Cellink to generate G-codes.

Going forward, our aim with this research on creating artificial blood vessels would be to work towards translating these proof-of-concept results into clinically-relevant solutions such as the blood vessel substitutes, Dr Kaushik Chatterjee.

 

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