Frontier，Number，History，Anecdote

Frontier

New Breakthrough in 3D Bio-printing Technique：

Creating Artificial Blood Vessels

Written by / journalist stationed abraod Li Qing

3D printers are quickly becoming equipment for manufacturing commodities in modern society， such as auto parts， prostheses， artificial eye， toys ......Thousands of patients die before they wait for the required organ transplantation each year. Facing this reality， scientists in medical field are speeding up the feasibility study and practice on artificial organs. Do you know what are the biggest challenges faced by scientists now？ It is how to create a complex vascular system. Because human tissues and cells as well as organs cannot get oxygen， nutrients and metabolize waste without vascular system. Application of 3D printing technique provides a possibility to solve this problem. With 3D bio-printing technique， researchers from University of Sydney， Massachusetts Institute of Technology， Harvard University and Stanford University have successfully made artificial vascular tissues featured with blood capillary.

To print out networks of blood vessels， the researchers first made very subtle and mutually connected corpus fibrosum with advanced bio-printers; then， coated these corpus fibrosums with endothelial cells. Endothelial cells are cells existing between the inner surface of blood vessels and the flowing blood， provide the blood vessels with some protein nutrients; next， the researchers harden the entire corpus fibrosum with light， carefully remove the fibers， and make the complex hollow cellular network left. A week later， these cells are able to form a stable network of capillaries themselves.

Studies have shown that the survival rate， division and reproduction of cells in the network of blood vessels printed out by 3D bio-printers are better than the cells without nutrient supply. However， the smallest diameter of blood vessel that can be made is 75μm only， which is much thicker than the blood capillary which can deliver nutrients and metabolize waste. Therefore， there is still some way to make artificial organs which can normally work like human organs， however， the important breakthrough in 3D printing artificial vascular tissues has given use a new hope.

Number

15 minutes

For scientists studying wild penguins it is not a small challenge to being in close contact with the object of study and not bringing them pressure and discomfort. For this reason， scientists have invented a remotely controlled robot to observe and study the life of penguins， and have successfully solved this problem.

Initially， the remotely controlled robot used by the research team was one without any disguise， but fortunately， the penguins did not have too much stress response to the roaming robot with very weird sound， only part of scary penguins guarded against it. Later， scientists have improved the robot changing it into a furry penguin robot that looks like a baby penguin. The disguised penguin robot was so popular that the penguins walked up and tried to have a dialogue with it， and even some take the initiative to give way to it.

Anectode

Penguin Robot

Not long ago， a press communiqué published by CEA said that they have developed a small instrument which can rapidly detect Ebola virus with the detection process of only 15 minutes， saving more than two hours compared with virogene detection method used in medical field.

It is said that the small instrument called "Ebola eZYSCREEN" is very easy to use. What is needed to do is to drop one of blood， blood plasma or urine of the person to be tested in the test cells without the aid of other equipment， the test result will come out in 15 minutes. LABORATOIRE P4 Jean Mérieux in France （P4， the short form of biosafety level 4， is currently the highest level of biosafety） have tested this product， proving that it can effectively detect Ebola virus widely spreading in West Africa.

From a human standpoint， both ants and butterflies are not "talkative" animals， but the "dialogue" between phengaris arion caterpillar and formica fusca is somewhat different. - Elizabeth Panis

Establishment of a global seed bank is a strategy that we deal with potential future crises， and it will also be a long-term， sustainable positive strategy. - Marie Haga

History

On December 1， 1981， the world's first AIDS was diagnosed. To raise people's awareness of AIDS， World Health Organization identified December 1 as World AIDS Day in January 1988 to call on various countries and international organizations to organize related activities on this day to publicize and popularize the knowledge of AIDS prevention.

Full medical name of AIDS is "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome"， caused by human immunodeficiency virus （HIV， also known as ADIS virus） causes. More simply， AIDS is a so serious infectious disease that the body's immune system is destroyed by HIV，so that the human body loses resistance to various life-threatening pathogens， thus causing a variety of infections or tumors， leading to death. This virus infects throughout the patient's life. The carrier of the AIDS virus will become an AIDS patient when his/her immunologic function is severely broken down so that the minimum resistance to diseases is not able to be maintained. Average incubation period of AIDS virus in the human body is 12.5 years， therefore， the patient is normal outwardly and may live and work for many years without any symptom before developing into an AIDS patient. A communiqué published by World Health Organization on November 25， 2013 said that there were about 2.1 million HIV-infected adolescents aged 10 to 19 worldwide in 2012. Due to the lack of relevant services， AIDS-related deaths in adolescents increased by 50% in 2005-2012. What is frightening is that many young people do not know whether they are infected with the AIDS virus.