Indian scientists print human organs from silk

摘要

Additive manufacturing (AM) is being widely used to generate human tissues and organs for implantation. Most of these methods utilize collagen as a scaffold for cells to grow on, but a new technique has been developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in Assam, India, that uses wild silk to construct the support structure. Before it can be used in humans, collagen (generally from animal sources) must be purified, which can be costly and complex. However, only needs to be removed as a liquid from silkworm glands or silk filaments and can be dissolved in solvents.