A team at the University of Louisville has taken bioprinting a step farther by creating a working 3D printed human heart made of fat cells.
Think of a future where, if your heart failed or has a defect, you could get one that works better and lasts longer. Researchers at the University of Louisville have moved a step closer in this direction by using a 3D printer to make working parts of a human heart, using fat cells and collagen. The human heart is a complex muscle. It can’t be built at once, so each part, the valves, large blood vessels, small blood vessels, electrical conducting system, is built and assembled together with a giant, intricate 3D printer. They are taking a piece of fat, isolating regenerative cells in the fat, utilizing those, then mixing factorized cells with collagen and then printing it.
They have looked at the pancreas, which could be made to better work for diabetics, as well as kidney tissue and bone tissue that could be replaced if a patient is sick or injured. The heart is much easier to print than any other part of the body, the researchers think they can do it in 10 years, build, from a patient’s own cells, a total ‘bioficial’ heart. Eventually, scientists across the globe hope printing tissues and organs from patients’ cells can eliminate the danger of rejection and the persistent shortage of transplant organs.
sources: techrepublic.com; 3dprint.com; 3dprinting.com; cv2i.org