Researchers print cells with an inkjet printer
From
paper to plants, printing has come a long way since Gutenberg. These
days scientists and engineers can print almost anything, from bones to
robots to more printers using the latest technology. But usually these
techniques require an expensive, 3-D printer. Now, researchers have
printed live cells with a standard inkjet printer.
The research comes from Clemson University, where
not only are they printing cells onto slides – a technique that
researchers have been playing with elsewhere. But what the Clemson team
wanted to do was open up pores in the cell membranes. When the pores are
open, researchers can put things like florescent molecules into the
cells without having to inject them or otherwise damage the membrane.
“The advantage of using thermal inkjet printing to
inject molecules into cells is that the technique is relatively benign
to cells,” the authors wrote in their paper.
There were limits, however, to the printing
technology. The holes that the printer made were only 10 nanometers
wide, so only things smaller than that could enter.
The Clemson team has also put together a how-to guide and video
of their work. It’s over in the Journal of Visualized Experiments – the
only journal that publishes every article both in words and in video.
The lab at Clemson has particular ideas about what they want to do with these cells. “We
are actually interested in the cell mechanics of compressed cells. This
method allows us to push on the cells and watch the response easily,”
said Delphine Dean in the press release.
But the applications of these printing techniques
exist far beyond compressed heart cells. The advantage to printing cells
rather than manually injecting them with molecules is mainly in speed.
Printing can happen far faster and easier. Thousands of cells can be
printed every minute. As these techniques get better and better,
scientists might eventually be able to print entire organs or structures
that can be implanted into humans.
Image: A fibroblast printed with the
modified inkjet printer. The interior of the cell shows that the
fluorescently tagged actin monomers have been incorporated. © The Journal of Visualized Experiments
