A Cutting-Edge Printer for Bio-Fabricating Tissue Scaffolds

数百万人遭受组织/器官损伤，如骨关节炎和心脏病发作。组织/器官移植是治疗这些类型损伤的金标准，但由于供体组织/器官的可用性有限，作为一种选择受到严重限制。组织工程是一个新兴领域，其目标是生产可以与患者一起生长的组织/器官替代品或组织支架，最终通过修复/替换受损部位提供永久性解决方案。然而，生产这种组织支架已被证明是一项具有挑战性的任务，其临床应用的进展受到极大限制。一个重要的障碍是无法制造具有模仿天然组织/器官的结构和细胞组织的支架。在这个申请中，我们需要一台尖端的打印机来增强我们基于三维（3D）打印技术（通过逐层打印/沉积材料创建3D物体）用活细胞制造组织支架的能力。这种增强的能力将使我们能够开发用于组织工程应用的新型支架，包括心肌梗死治疗、关节软骨修复、牙齿缺损治疗和中风治疗，这些都是萨斯喀彻温大学正在积极追求的。因此，这项研究的主要利益相关者是大量遭受组织/器官损伤的加拿大人以及相关领域的卫生研究人员/从业人员/工业伙伴。这项研究也将涉及研究生的培训，以满足组织工程和医疗保健领域对高素质人才日益增长的需求。

Millions of people suffer from tissue/organ injuries, such as osteoarthritis and heart attacks. Tissue/organ transplantation is the gold standard to treat some of these types of injuries but is severely restricted as an option due to the limited availability of donor tissues/organs. Tissue engineering is an emerging field that aims to produce tissue/organ substitutes or tissue scaffolds that can grow with patients, ultimately providing a permanent solution by repairing/replacing what is damaged. Producing such tissue scaffolds, however, has proven to be a challenging task that has significantly limited progress towards clinical applications. An important barrier is the inability to fabricate scaffolds with structures and cell organizations that mimic those of native tissues/organs. In this application, we request a cutting-edge printer to enhance our capacity to fabricate tissue scaffolds with living cells based on a three-dimensional (3D) printing technique (that creates 3D objects by printing/depositing materials layer by layer). This enhanced capacity will enable us to develop novel scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, including myocardial infarction treatment, articular cartilage repair, tooth defect treatment, and stroke treatment, which are being actively pursued at the University of Saskatchewan. As such, the primary stakeholders of the research are the large number of Canadians who suffer from tissue/organ injuries as well as health researchers/practitioners/industry partners in related areas. This research will also involve the training of graduate students to meet the increasing demand for highly qualified personnel in the fields of tissue engineering and health care.