Researchers at University of Toronto Engineering have developed a platform for growing realistic human heart and liver tissue outside the body. The AngioChip could help drug companies discover and prevent negative side effects.

The engineers manufactured small, intricate scaffolds for individual cells to grow on.

Graduate student Boyang Zhang built the scaffold out of POMaC, a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer. The scaffold's thin layers are stamped with a pattern of channels that each measure about 50 to 100 micrometers wide.

The microchip-like layers are then stacked into a 3D structure of synthetic blood vessels. As each layer is added, UV light cross-links the polymer and bonds it to the layer below.

Living cells quickly attach to the inside and outside of the channels and begin growing just as they would in the human body.

Using the platform, the team has built model versions of both heart and liver tissues.

"Our liver actually produced urea and metabolized drugs,” said professor Milica Radisic. "They can connect the blood vessels of the two artificial organs, thereby modelling not just the organs themselves, but the interactions between them."

In the future, Radisic envisions her lab-grown tissues being implanted into the body to repair organs damaged by disease. Because the cells used to seed the platform can come from any individual, the new tissues could be genetically identical to the intended host, reducing the risk of organ rejection.

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