The idea to use a cotton candy machine (or candy floss as the Europeans call the sugar based sweet synonymous with fairgrounds) was the brainwave of Professor Leon Bellan, who is a mechanical engineer by background. Bellan works at the Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Bellan was researching the mechanism by which nanoscale fibers are formed by the process of electrospinning. For this to work, a high voltage is supplied to a fiber-forming jet. This leads to deposits of nanofibers falling onto special mat. Viewed with electron microscopes the pattern is like strands of cheese or cotton candy.
During this time Bellan attended a seminar on tissue engineering where it was discussed that a limitation with the growing of critical organs was mimicking blood capillaries in the organ. These vessels are needed for delivering nutrients and oxygen to cells.
Bellan went back and thought about his electrospinning; he then looked at how his nanofibers were similar to capillatries, and this led to his research away from engineering and into biological systems.
For his trials, he purchased a cotton candy machine for $40 and began to experiment. He told Bioscience Technology, with glee: “Cotton candy seemed like a promising sacrificial template, and the machine was rather inexpensive and easily obtained…Plus how many people get to say they have a cotton candy machine in the lab?”
The machine allowed Bellan to create templates and to discuss these with biomedical scientists about a possible way forwards in the quest to develop lab grown organs. Trials have produced a three-dimensional artificial capillary system that keeps cells alive and functional for more than a week. This is a key step in the quest to develop artificial organs.
Further details are revealed in the video, from Bellan’s laboratory, below:
Bellan’s method has been published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. The research paper is headed ‘Development of 3D Microvascular Networks Within Gelatin Hydrogels Using Thermoresponsive Sacrificial Microfibers.’
In related news, Digital Journal recently reported on a successful trial where scientists produced the most realistic lab-grown liver tissue yet seen, using lab-on-chip technology.
