Behind the Scenes of Bioprinting

[Igor_Passau]

SAN DIEGO -– Say goodbye to donor lists and organ shortages. A biotech firm has created a printer that prints veins using a patients’ own cells. The device could potentially create whole organs in the future.

“Right now we’re really good at printing blood vessels,” says Ben Shepherd, senior research scientist at regenerative-medicine company Organovo. “We printed 10 this week. We’re still learning how to best condition them to be good, strong blood vessels.”

Most organs in the body are filled with veins, so the ability to print vascular tissue is a critical building block for complete organs. The printed veins are about to start testing in animal trials, and eventually go through human clinical trials. If all goes well, in a few years you may be able to replace a vein that has deteriorated (due to frequent injections of chemo treatment, for example) with custom-printed tissue grown from your own cells.

The barriers to full-organ printing are not just technological. The first organ-printing machine will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, test, produce and market. Not to mention the difficulty any company will have getting FDA approval.

“If Organovo will be able to raise enough money this company has [the] potential to succeed as [the] first bioprinting company but only time will show,” says Dr. Vladimir Mironov, director of advanced tissue biofabrication at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Organovo walked Wired.com through the process it uses to print blood vessels on the custom bioprinter.


http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2010/07/gallery-bio-printing/

 

[bobtheman]

so veins can get destroyed ? im 19 and i swear at least 3 of my veins they used for ivs collapsed and all of the docs tell me no no its not possible but im almost positive ive lost them and theyve developed collateral veins

 

[Igor_Passau]

Three-dimensional printing has been used to make a jawbone, a functioning bladder, as well as a model kidney, and there have been successful experiments in printing tissue such as skin cells for burn treatments and even the external part of an ear. Now scientists at Princeton University have, for the first time, printed not only the tissue for an ear but also the electronic components that would make an artificial sensory organ work. It’s the first step toward printing organs that behave like the real thing.Heart Cells Beat in a Lab DishMichael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and his colleagues used a commercially available 3-D printer to do the work. The “inks” consisted of hydrogels mixed with calf cells and silver nanoparticles. Layer-by-layer, the ink was laid down onto a surface, building up the three-dimensional structure of the ear and embedded electronics. Because it’s the first attempt, the electronics are just a simple antenna. But if it were connected to a receiver that in turn could be connected to a person’s auditory nerve with electrodes, it would allow a deaf person to hear.McAlpine has experimented with tissue-compatible electronics before: last year, he and his team created “tattoos” for teeth that were sophisticated electronic sensors.

Glass, Plastic Mix Mends Bones

There’s also the tantalizing possibility that such printed organs could enhance human capabilities — granting humans super-powers a la the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman television series. An electronic ear, for instance, needn’t be limited to the frequencies and volumes humans can usually hear.

The research team published their work in the journal Nano Letters.

via Eurekalert, The Engineer

Credit: Princeton University / Frank Wojciechowski
http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/3-d-printer-makes-bionic-ear-130502.htm#mkcpgn=fbsci1

 

[KWalker]

We are still a long way away from anything complex. Bioprinting right now is mainly used for skin reconstruction and yes there has even been a successful case with a bladder transplant onto a teenage boy, but there have also been countless failed attempts with major organs that don't operate.

The foundation is amazing and the possibilities are endless, but we are nowhere near the point where we can print major organs. I think it was estimated around 40 years until we start to see anything significant like that.

I just finished a genetics and tissue engineering class and this stuff is really amazing.