Article Techniek en wetenschap
3D Bioprinted Organs within 5 Years Available?
The Future of Healthcare: Part 1
Until recently, the first viable 3D bioprinted organs for human transplantation were not expected before the end of the next decade. A recent breakthrough appears to be a game-changer!
The blog series Future of Healthcare is aimed at healthcare professionals and discusses the most striking breakthroughs and developments in the healthcare sector.
In an interview with Techcrunch, Prellis Biologics states that their breakthrough in 3D bioprinting of organs makes the application on humans come to reality within the coming five years. For the first time ever, bioengineers at Prellis Biologics succeeded in 3D printing viable blood vessels (capillaries). This is considered as a big step towards the development of viable human 3D-printed organs, as capillaries play an essential role in one of the challenges of 3D bioprinting, namely printing speed:
Printing speed is crucial, since cells can only survive for a limited amount of time without a blood supply. And tissue that is densely packed with cells will die in less than 30 minutes unless oxygen and nutrients can be supplied immediately, through capillaries. Until now, it would take weeks or more to print just a centimeter cube of human tissue with microvasculature. Prellis’ technology can print high-resolution tissue structures up to 1000 times faster, with the vasculature in place. Our ultimate goal is to print the entire vascular system of a kidney in 12 hours or less.
What is 3D Bioprinting and how does it work?
Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is basically the application of 3D printing technology to create living organs and tissues. As an additive manufacturing technology, it works by adding layers of material to create the desired organ or tissue. In short, the 3D bioprinting development process consists out of the following steps:
- Choose or develop 3D bioprinting material, which depends of the desired result (for example, skin tissue, bone tissue, or organs);
- Choose or develop 3D modeling software for the design of the body part;
- Bioprint the desired part. This process of adding layer by layer is software controlled. However, maturation is part of this process, as cells have to proliferate and grow. In order to do so, special bioinks are used that allow for proliferation and connection of living cells.
Why is this an important development?
The 3D bioprinting technology holds promise for revolutionary innovations in many healthcare fields.From testing medicine, helping patients with burn injuries and complex bone fractures, to supplying new external body parts and organs. This has the potential to save a great number of lives worldwide. As the demand for organs for transplantation is globally increasing, the availability of organs is rapidly shrinking. This is mainly caused by improvements in therapeutic and preventive interventions that have resulted in a reduction of potential donors.
What is the current state of 3D Bioprinting?
Three-dimensional bioprinting has come a long way since bioengineer Thomas Boland (Clemson University) came up with the idea to replace the ink in his printer with living cells in 2003. Though 3D printing in most of the medical fields is primarily in the research and development stage, medicine manufacturers are already 3D printing living tissue for testing medicines.
Current challenges in 3D bioprinting according to biomedical engineers and scientists are: keeping cells alive, the ability to print fine tissue, controlling cellular fate and creating a bioprinter that can print complex artificial tissues. However, important breakthroughs are recently made in all the aforementioned challenges, which brings the delivery time of viable 3D-printed organs tot the market even closer!
3D Bioprinting: Ethical concerns
Besides the great promise that 3D bioprinting holds for the future of healthcare, it also poses several ethical concerns. These concerns are:
- Access equality: Will everybody have access to 3D-bioprinted material or only the wealthy?
- Application safety: Are 3D-bioprinted organs and tissues really safe for application on humans? Long-term as well?
- Human enhancement: Will 3D-bioprinted material be used for other than life-saving medical treatments? For instance, plastic surgery or enhancements that benefit professional athletes?
This is how the amazing process of 3D bioprinting a heart will look like:
