Current ALS treatments are limited by a focus on symptom management and lack of understanding of the disease’s cause, but new technologies like 3D printing can offer exciting opportunities for innovation, such as custom prosthetics, artificial muscles, tissue engineering, and personalized medicine, which could significantly improve patient outcomes.
When you walk into the DMV and get your license for the first time, you get asked an important question. Would you like to be an organ donor? Many people are unsure how to respond at first because they don’t understand what it entails; however, by diving deeper, one can truly understand the impact of this decision. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, 17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant. The amount of donations received per day is not enough to outweigh the need for the transplant, and lives are lost every day. However, with new technology and medicine, the world of 3D printing organs, biocompatible materials, and tissues has made tremendous strides in saving lives.
In this blog article, I would like to discuss three aspects of bioprinting organs: the various materials, the different types of printing, and the internal bodily reactions.
3D bioprinting tissues is a very complex matter, starting with the topic of materials. The first thing to consider when 3D printing tissues is the material with which the patients specific product will be constructed. This is a challenge as the compatibility of the material needs to work with the printing machine and the patient’s body. The most common materials used are categorized into two separate types. The first type is natural polymers like gelatin and collagen, and the second is synthetic polymers like polyurethane. Ph.D. student Saeedeh Vanaei explains in a review paper that natural polymers are advantageous because they have low solubility levels and are very vicious. Natural polymers produce fewer issues during production, leading to fewer patient complications. On the other hand, synthetic polymers are advantageous because they have high tensile strength and can break down into smaller parts.
There are many different types of 3D printing of these biological organs. However, the most used include extrusion-based models, laser-assisted models, and bio inkjet droplet-based. In this field of bioprinting tissues and organs, bioinks is a term used to describe these previously mentioned polymers used to make artificial organs/tissues. A study by Tao Xu at the University of Clemson found that bioprinting using inkjet is a viable option for reproducing living tissues in animals. This type of engineering will be duplicated in human tissues.
Plot of creep compliances of various specimens versus experiment time. Courtesy of: Zühlke and Gasik.
When a foreign intruder enters unknown territory, it is hard to determine the outcome. The same goes for the human body. It is almost impossible to match original tissues to 3D printed ones, and deadly complications can arise if the body doesn’t accept the foreign tissue. In their published study, Alexandra Zühlke and Michael Gasik performed creep tests that indicated the creep compliance of silicone bioprinted tissues. A creep test showes the changes and modifications a material undergoes when introduced to stresses. These tissues were placed under different stresses at various pressures. Their creep compliance can be seen in the figure to the left. The results concluded pressures that the foreign tissue would need to exert on the neighboring parts of the body to lead to the least amount of complications. These complications can lead to surrounding tissue dying and could likely result in the need to remove the bioprinted organ surgically.
Overall, considering the very high organ demand, 3D bioprinting these tissues gives hope and security to patients worldwide. For more information on this topic of the advancements of the technology 3D printing organ, please visit these two articles here and here.
For most people in the United States who need an organ transplant, they will need to wait an average of three to five years on a list before they can get a lifesaving surgery. On average, 20 people die daily waiting on this list. There is a possibility of being able to bypass the wait time by manufacturing the required organs with 3D printing. This manufacturing technique was first used in the medical field for prosthetics and surgery practice models, with a goal to create fully functioning organs for those in need. Instead of using plastic or printer ink, the 3D printer uses cells to create biological constructions.
Can you imagine a world where amputees receive replacement limbs which are able to detect temperature and pressure like an actual limb? How about a world where when you get a cut, you can 3D print some of your own skin to patch the wound?
3-D printing is a quite exciting technology that has come to light in recent years. The process involves a nozzle much like in a regular inkjet printer that layers material upon material to build up a 3D structure. The printer receives this data from a computer designed file that maps out where the printer should add material. Combine this with filler material that serves to hold everything in its final upright position, and the final product is born, after setting and clearing off the filler. This process has been used to make many different things, from simple objects like phone cases and luggage tags to complex scaffolds used to hold cells for tissue engineering, or as in this post, specific implants for dogs and other animals. The usual types of orthopedic implants that have somewhat of a cookie cutter size distribution for humans do not always fit in dogs or other animals. So, 3-D printing has been employed to create implants used to repair and replace bones in veterinary situations.
