Researchers Bioprint a Trachea

Additive manufacturing (AM) has created mechanical marvels and produced technological triumphs, and while you might appreciate what the technology has done for industries such as aerospace, no use of AM is more valuable to humanity as a whole than what has been accomplished in the medical field. Low-cost prosthetics are only the tip of the iceberg for medical 3D printing. The future is in biology.

Bioprinting is the future of medical technology, and researchers at Mount Sinai have produced what may be the first feasible bioprinted transplant. In late January, the research team built a trachea using 3D printing and a biological membrane. The team seeded the membrane with a stem cell solution, and primed the stem cells by adding growth factors that transform the cells into cartilage precursors.

Naturally, the first test wasn’t conducted on a human. Mount Sinai’s team instead implanted the bioprinted trachea into a baby pig. Over two months later the pig is still healthy and the team responsible for the procedure is optimistic about its future.

“The pig has tripled in weight and doubled in size,” said Faiz Bhora, MD, director of Thoracic Surgical Oncology and Thoracic Surgery Research at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals. “The collateral benefit is that it appears the trachea is able to keep up with growth, which has positive implications for using this in children.”

Creating new organs and other bits and pieces of the body from the same patient who will eventually receive the implant should eliminate instances where a body rejects new tissue. In the future we may even surpass the need for organ donors, which would result in hundreds or thousands of lives saved every year as there are never enough donors. Bioprinting a new organ would also be much faster than finding a compatible donor.

Even with the hope offered by the research team, printed organs won’t become available for years. Researchers must find a proper bioprinting material suitable to act as a scaffold for any printed organ, as well as determine a way to encourage proper blood flow.

Stumbling blocks or no, this latest, successful, procedure is a glimpse into the future of medical care and bioprinting. Who knows, one of you may eventually end up with a kidney printed by MakerBot.

Below you’ll find a video about how 3D printing is already assisting doctors.

Source: The Week, Mount Sinai