Printing bone tissue sounds like a great idea, but 3D printers typically use heat to melt layers together, which means that incorporating cells during the printing process is nearly impossible. Now a partnership between scientists at University of Nottingham in the UK and Cornell University in New York have developed a way of printing bone-like biocompatible material at room temperature and seeding it with special microspheres capable of releasing pre-loaded proteins.

The material is a thermoresponsive microparticulate based on PLGA (poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)). It is similar in strength to cancellous bone tissue and can help sustain live cells in addition to the microspheres.

Study in journal Biofabrication: Cell and protein compatible 3D bioprinting of mechanically strong constructs for bone repair…

Source: Institute of Physics…