New lab-made substance mimics human tissue and could reduce/replace the use of animal-derived materials in research
Published in Bioprinting.
Scientists at UNSW Sydney have created a new material that could change the way human tissue can be grown in the lab and used in medical procedures.
The new material belongs to a family of substances called hydrogels, the essence of life’s “squishy” substances found in all living things, such as cartilage in animals and in plants like seaweed. The properties of hydrogels make them very useful in biomedical research because they can mimic human tissue, allowing cells to grow in a laboratory.
There are also human-made hydrogels that are used in a broad range of commodity products ranging from food and cosmetics to contact lenses and absorbent materials, and more recently in medical research to seal wounds and replace damaged tissue. While they might function adequately as space fillers that encourage tissue growth, synthetic hydrogels fall short in recreating the complex properties of real human tissue.
https://phys.org/news/2023-10-lab-made-substance-mimics-human-tissue.html