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Researchers from the University of Tel Aviv have carried out an engineering study on the first vascularized heart and carried out using 3D printing.
This is an experiment that gives a huge breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine because cells and biological materials of a living being can be used to create a “new” organ.
Prof. Tal Dvir, a molecular biotechnologist at Tel Aviv University, is enthusiastic about the success of having printed a whole heart made of cells, blood vessels and internal structures.
The cells and biological materials of a given patient are served as biological inks, being composed of sugars and proteins it was possible to use them to model complete tissues thanks to 3D printing.
The protagonists of the event were professors Dvir, Assaf Shapira and Nadav Moor, with the help of a doctoral student of the laboratory managed by Prof. Dvir. He said that the 3D printed organ is the size of a rabbit heart, but the technology and innovation of 3D printing can also be applied to achieve a human heart.
The study was started by taking the patient’s fat tissue with a biopsy and separating the cells that were reprogrammed into stem cells.
With the stem cells a 3D netting has been created, such as collagen and glycoproteins that have been transformed into a personalized hydrogel and thus become ink for 3D printing.
The cardiac cells were mixed with the hydrogel, and then separated to create a cardiac patch compatible with the patient until the blood vessels and the entire heart were created.
The most important thing in this project is the compatibility of the biomaterial that must have the same biochemical, mechanical and topographic properties of the patient’s tissues, otherwise the risk of rejection becomes very high.
As they say … Yet it beats … this will be the next important goal to reach.
Innovation and research continue to bring unthinkable results, 3D printing is becoming an inexhaustible source of ideas realized in practice.
Coesum is excited to be part of the world of innovation and 3D development and congratulates the University of Tel Aviv and all its medical staff.
3D prototyping makes great strides and Coesum is strongly convinced to keep up with the innovation of 3D printers and with the support given to companies working in the medical sector.
