In tissue engineering, one of the biggest challenges is ensuring that 3D-printed materials maintain their structure over long periods. A group of researchers has proposed a technique that combines multiple materials to overcome this barrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this interdisciplinary field, engineering, biology, and medicine are combined to restore, maintain, and improve damaged tissues or organs, as well as to print cultured meat<\/a> or shape plant-based meats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To achieve this, cells, biocompatible materials and molecules are used, either in the laboratory, in a petri dish or a bioreactor, or directly in the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the field has advanced significantly in recent years, it remains difficult to create thick structures with internal channels that allow tissue to vascularize\u2014to develop blood vessels\u2014keep cells alive for weeks or months, and prevent them from degrading or losing their shape. These obstacles have limited the printing of more complex structures, such as muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the case of cultured meat, we could cultivate filaments with cells so that they would grow and form tissue, but after seven days they would fall apart,\u201d says Grissel Trujillo<\/a>, a research professor at the School of Engineering and Sciences<\/a> (EIC) of Tec de Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To solve this, Trujillo, Mario \u00c1lvarez<\/a>, research professor at EIC, along with a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional group, including researchers from the University of Engineering and Technology of Lima<\/a>, Peru, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> (MIT), United States, demonstrated in a recent article<\/a> the use of multi-material chaotic printing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be used to print bands of different materials, allowing for the printing of more complex tissues <\/strong>that are resistant and firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n