3D printing technology has come a long way from its infancy, so much so that scientists claim that custom-made, living body parts are now capable of being 3D-printed, and this would mark a significant advance when it comes to regenerative medicine. In order to test it out, so far the 3D printed sections of bone, muscle and cartilage managed to function as though they are normal when implanted into animals.
This particular breakthrough would advance the hope of ensuring that living tissues will be used in order to repair the body – some sort of healing factor, if you will. This technology has been described by experts as a “goose that really does lay golden eggs”. Imagine being able to arrange individual human cells in a precise manner so that they can replace a damaged jaw, or perhaps a missing ear, as well as that of a scarred heart.
There is one major hurdle to overcome still where this particular field is concerned – that is, to ensure that the cells would remain alive, as cells end up starved of oxygen and nutrients in tissues that are thicker than 0.2 millimetres. The Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System, or ITOP for short, carries a bio-degradeable plastic that ensures the structure and a water-based gel will encourage the cells to grow. With the structures implanted in an animal, the plastic would break down, before being replacing by what’s natural. Blood vessels and nerves then grew into the implants, so hopefully these implants would be durable in time – but much more testing is required before it becomes reality and brings hope to the masses.
Filed in . Read more about 3D Printing and Science. Source: bbc