First ever 3D printing heart by scientist using human tissue
The heart is important organ for pumping of the blood and supply of the nutrients to the various organs in the body. usually, the human heart is made up of unique cells which helps the heart for contraction and relaxation periodically. The human heart has four chambers: two upper chambers (the atria) and two lower ones (the ventricles), which are separated by the walls. apart from this heart do posses multitudinous of the capillaries and lot more things. “The tissues of the body need a constant supply of nutrition in order to be active,” said Dr. Lawrence Phillips, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
So the construction of the human heart is hard. but a group of scientist has proved our assumption is wrong with an extraordinary breakthrough was reported on Monday by Prof. Tal Dvir, Dr. Assaf Shapira of TAU’s Faculty of Life Sciences and Nadav Noor, his doctoral student, in Advanced Science.
It will probably take years before this technology can create organs for effective transplant if it ever does. Yet the Tel Aviv scientists’ achievement so far is a huge milestone in transplant science as per critics: Tissues have been printed before using three-dimensional printing technology, but they lacked the vascularization – blood vessels – essential to usability.
Though the technology is still in its infancy, printed organs are already being used for training purposes in medical schools, and for doctors to plan out complicated surgeries. Dvir hopes the technology can become mainstream in a decade or so, printing organs and tissues for people using their own tissues as a base.
The Tel Aviv scientists began with fatty tissue extracted from people and separated the cellular and non-cellular components. They then reprogrammed the cells to revert into undifferentiated stem cells, which could then be nudged into becoming cardiac cells or endothelial cells. Until now, scientists have managed to print cartilage and aortal valve tissues, for instance, but the challenge has been to create tissues complete with vascularization: blood vessels, including capillaries, without which the organs cannot survive, let alone function.
The non-cellular materials, including proteins galore, were processed into a “personalized hydrogel” that served as the printing “ink,” Dvir explained.
As per the Dvir Key to the whole point is that using the patient’s own molecules significantly reduces the probability of organ rejection, Dvir explained. His greatest hope is that organ printing will render organ donation obsolete.
