Could 4D bioprinting be the way forward for synthetic blood vessels?

Researchers have created the world's smallest synthetic blood vessels, which are able to self-construct using 4D bioprinting. Leonid Ionov and his team at the University of Bayreuth (Bayreuth, Germany) and University of Georgia (GA, USA) have utilized 4D bioprinting to create the smallest synthetic blood vessels to date. The results of the study were published in Advanced Materials. Typically, 3D bioprinters are able to make tubes at a scale of tens to hundreds of microns in diameter. However, the diameter of the smallest blood vessels in the human body is around 5 microns. Producing such small, intricate structures would lead...