The researchers were able to print working ear, muscle and bone – Politics

Do a few years instead of downloading organs from donors will be printed on a 3D printer? It seems that such a possibility becomes more likely. A team of Anthony Atala of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in the US has managed to print the ear, muscle and bone, which after implantation the animals have taken normal operation. This gives hope that soon similar operations will be carried out on a human recipient. This will become possible thanks to a new, special for this purpose designed a 3D printer.

As reported by “Nature Biotechnology” tissue when implanted in the body matched to the surrounding tissues and created a fully functioning system of blood vessels.

the researchers say their new method of printing will allow you to create the tissues, whose size and power will be suitable for implantation in the human body. That is, the printer uses the material has the same mechanical properties as human organs, so far constituted a problem. – When printing using 3D printed organ will have the same properties, eg., Mechanical, as the material from which it was made. If the print of plastic – will have the properties of plastic. Breakthrough iTop technology consists in that the system also allows the use of materials that impart various characteristics of the printed tissues. This means that the print may have characteristics of a specific organ, which is a huge breakthrough – says prof. Richard Naskręcki University. Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.

Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center say that printed their tissues are the ideal implant tissue, which means that the body does not just accept them and they do not reject the extraneous organisms, but even it accepts and assimilates, so overgrown they cartilage, blood vessels, and even nerves. Followed by complete fusion of the implant to the recipient organism, which means that the printed ear can hear.

The revolutionary printer is the result of almost 10 years of specialists from the Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Unlike other 3D printers iTop (The Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System) uses several different materials. So far, the development of 3D printers took place in two ways. On the one hand we worked on in the polymer layer, which will print was as thin as possible, so that the printing became precision. On the other – they wanted to create a printer that would benefit from a larger number of materials. ITop has the advantages of both approaches. It is accurate and uses a variety of materials.

The printer uses data from CT and magnetic resonance imaging of the patient. Then, the polymers are printed in less important to the operation of the body structure, which becomes the frame for a gel containing a living cell. On the other biocompatible materials are printed elements such as eg. The skin. -, the spectacular iTop lies in the fact that the effect of printing a particular organ, which is not a “plastic prosthesis,” and actually acting tissue – said prof. Richard Naskręcki.

Moreover, the further development of the technology is to allow printing of whole organs ready for transplant. The next step in the research of Dr. Anthony Atala will be printed transplantation of muscle, cartilage and bone veterans who have suffered on the battlefield. If the first attempt to veterans prove to be successful, printing organs will become a new hope for thousands of patients waiting for a transplant.