How do you feel about printing human organs? Would you feel differently if you had diseased organ compromising your functional or mortality? I thought so.
The Process
3D printing or additive manufacturing isn't a new concept by any means, its been used in manufacturing plastic products and for printing complex metal parts in aerospace and automotive industries. The process is simple in that it uses a CAD file to take a 3D image and the appropriate materials to print a desired object. However, it differs greatly in that the materials used are bio-compatible materials along with human tissue cells, this helps reduce the chances of organ rejection. Once structures are built they are placed into incubators that mimic the human body to create an environment that encourages growth of living connections and networks. This is a whole new frontier for 3D printing and for health science.
Challenges
Although the idea of printing and incubating organs ready to order is really exciting, particularly for those with degenerative diseases and damaged organs, the technology isn't quite ready for printing fully functional complex organs such as the lungs and heart. We can however, print many parts which make up the organ and replace the dysfunctional parts of the organ.
Interestingly, Bio-printing brings huge benefits to the drug development industry, an industry that's tied up in heavy regulation and high costs. They also face many ethical implications with the use of animals during pre-clinical models. Sam Wadsworth of Aspect Biosystems, highlighted that many of these drugs that are tested on animals fail on humans at clinical trials because the animals physiology responds quite differently to humans. By using 3D printed tissue to test their researched compounds, drug development firms could not only rectify the moral issues they face but also the issues regarding the effectiveness of their drugs, saving money, time and reputation. This is because the printed tissue behaves as a recreation of the human organ and all its complexities, thus providing more accuracy when testing.
We may be many years away from seeing a lifesaving, fully functional set of lungs being printed and implanted into a patient with pulmonary fibrosis, there is no doubt that 3D Bioprinting will heavily impact the way we search for possible cures and treatments for patients in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHi2IH2SgJI
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