An exact copy of the brain tissue was printed on a 3-D printer
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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In the human brain more than 80 billion nerve cells and before the researchers was not an easy task - to create an artificial tissue to learn the principle of the brain, however, all attempts ended unsuccessfully.
In one research center in Australia, specialists have come close to solving this problem. In the center of ACES, a 3-D model was printed that not only mimics the structure of the brain tissue and consists of nerve cells, but also forms relatively regular neural connections.
The price of brain tissue for testing is quite high. When developing new drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturers spend a huge amount of money (millions of dollars) on testing with animals. It should be noted that even after successful tests on animals, when testing in humans it turns out that the drugs have the opposite effectiveness. According to scientists, this is due to the fact that the human brain differs from animals.
The printed 3-D model of brain tissue accurately mimics human brain tissue and is predicted to be useful not only for testing new drugs, but also for studying various atrophic diseases and brain disorders.
The author of the research project, Professor Gordon Wallace, explained that the development of his research group can be considered a big step forward, since the test tissue of the brain will not only help to better understand the principle of the brain and the development of certain diseases, but will also open great opportunities for pharmaceutical companies.
According to Wallace, it's too early to talk about typing the full-fledged brain of a priest, but the fact that it is known how to arrange cells so that they form the necessary neural connections is itself a breakthrough.
To create a six-layer structure, scientists created a special biological dye, based on natural carbohydrate materials. The unique paint has the ability to reproduce the exact honeycomb scattering throughout the material structure, thereby providing the rarest level of cellular protection.
Biological paint is specifically designed for 3-D printing and can be used under normal conditions for growing cells, without the need to use expensive equipment.
As a result of this printing, a layered structure is obtained, exactly as observed in the natural brain tissue, the cells are arranged in a certain order and remain in the layers that are assigned to them.
This development, according to Wallace, opens the possibility of using other, more complex printers to create test models.
Also, experts noted that the new print principle can not yet be used in neurosurgery, since artificial brain tissue is short-lived, in addition, despite the exact imitation, the 3-D model is not a 100% analog of the present brain.
Previously, all created artificial models were created in a two-dimensional dimension, the new 3-D model brings the research closer to real conditions.
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