I am looking at the feasibility of building a reprap to design a structural scaffold interlaced with a sugar lattice which would then be put into a biogel to culture cells, once these cells take hold, then dissolving out the sugar, exactly like they did at UPenn, and hooking it up to a vascular bioreactor that would feed the cells and mimic physiological forces. [www.nature.com] These guys used detergents to strip kidney tissue to a structural scaffold then reculture stem cells onto them. My thoughts are to evaluate if it is possible to build that initial scaffold from a 3D printer. Has anyone taken a look at building scaffolds, biogels, sugar lattices, or bioreactors, in concert with using a reprap? -Soon to be american physician with a background in biomedical engineering that can't sit still for 5 minutes https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,226741#msg-226741 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:07:16 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,494842#msg-494842 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,494842#msg-494842 this study for a method by which adipose derived stem cells ( adult) cells can be reprogrammed. Or these studies for tissue engineering methods.]]> KirstenOrion Tissue Engineering Thu, 09 Apr 2015 13:02:05 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,236631#msg-236631 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,236631#msg-236631 printing the scaffold with a 3D-Printer is an interesting idea. However, the stem cells will only rebuild the kidney if they have a reason to become kidney cells which is given by the biological scaffold but not by the scaffold from the 3D Printer. BUT... this is state of the art up to now. If a replacement would be found, for example a chemical compound that makes the stem cells differenciating to kidney cells you could include that into your scaffold. Also the use of hIPS cells could avoid the ethical problems with common hES cells.
I like the idea very much. Are you sure that it is a good idea to dissolve the sugar out after the cells took hold? Maybe keeping the scaffold would be a better idea?]]> Daniel Tissue Engineering Fri, 16 Aug 2013 08:12:21 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,226741#msg-226741 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?194,226741,226741#msg-226741
[www.nature.com]

These guys used detergents to strip kidney tissue to a structural scaffold then reculture stem cells onto them. My thoughts are to evaluate if it is possible to build that initial scaffold from a 3D printer. Has anyone taken a look at building scaffolds, biogels, sugar lattices, or bioreactors, in concert with using a reprap?

-Soon to be american physician with a background in biomedical engineering that can't sit still for 5 minutes]]> An0Ma|Y Tissue Engineering Sat, 13 Jul 2013 14:07:54 -0400