3D printing of blood plasma may speed up wound healing

3D printing of blood plasma may speed up wound healing December 02, 2021, 17:02

New research by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences suggests that effective wound healing may be aided by replicating a crucial component of our blood.

The finding, Opens in new windowpublished in Advanced Functional Materials, was led by researchers at the Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG) and SFI AMBER Centre based at RCSI’s Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a natural healing substance in our blood. This study explores ways of enhancing the wound healing process by extracting PRP from the blood of a patient with a complex skin wound and manipulating it through 3D printing to form an implant for tissue repair which can be used to treat difficult-to-heal skin wounds in a single surgical procedure.

Results showed that application of the 3D-printed PRP implant helped to speed up the healing of the wound by enabling efficient vascularisation (meaning development of new blood vessels) and inhibiting fibrosis (scarring/thickening of tissue), both of which are essential for effective wound healing.

Speaking about the novel aspects of this discovery, Professor Fergal O’Brien, Professor of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine at RCSI, said: "Existing literature suggests that while the PRP already present in our blood helps to heal wounds, scarring can still occur. By 3D-printing PRP into a biomaterial scaffold, we can increase the formation of blood vessels while also avoiding the formation of scars, leading to more successful wound healing.

"As well as promising results for skin wound healing, this technology can potentially be used to regenerate different tissues, therefore dramatically influencing the ever-growing regenerative medicine, 3D printing and personalised medicine markets."

Funding for this project came from Science Foundation Ireland under the M-ERA.NET EU network and the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research Centre, and the EU BlueHuman Interreg Atlantic Area Project.

The RCSI research team collaborated with researchers from the Opens in new window3B’s Research Group at University of Minho and Opens in new windowICVS/3B’s Associate Laboratory in Portugal, the Opens in new windowTrinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Opens in new windowAMBER, the SFI Centre for Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research.

rcsi.com

3D printing

or on to add a comment to scientific problem you are interested in!

Comments (0)

You may also be interested in

A little video game-playing 'linked with better-adjusted children'

A new study suggests video game-playing for less than an hour a day is linked with better-adjusted children and teenagers. The research, carried out by Oxford University, found that young people who indulged in a little video game-playing were associated with being better adjusted than those who had never played or those who were on video games for three hours or more. The study finds no positive or negative effects for young people who played ‘moderately’ between one to three hours a day. However, the study, published in the journal, Pediatrics, suggests that the influence of video games on children, for good or for ill, is very small when compared with more ‘enduring’ factors, such as whether the child is from a functioning family, their school relationships, and whether they are materially deprived.

Database

The database will assist you in finding companies, investors, research institutes and research centers of aging. We provide full information on public and private companies. According to our plan platform will give access to the world of projects seeking capital to analysts of the leading specialists in online communities, as well as to the global list of investors.

Fundraising

Raise funds necessary for successful work of your company, venture project or your idea.