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3D printed heart in israel


Israeli scientists create world's first 3D-printed heart using human cells

Innovation

The team created a cell-containing "bioink" and used it to 3D print the organ layer by layer.

A scientist holds the world's first 3D-printed, vascularized engineered heart in Tel Aviv on April 15.AMIR COHEN / Reuters

By David Freeman

Israeli researchers have created an entire 3D-printed heart made from human cells in what they say is a world first.

The heart doesn't beat and is too small for use in people — it's only about the size of a rabbit's heart. But the little organ is considered a big advance in the ongoing effort to find new treatments for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

Heart transplantation is currently the only good option for people with severe heart failure. But donor organs are in such short supply that, on average, 18 Americans die each day before one becomes available. Being able to 3D-print a human heart when needed could conceivably help save many lives that are now lost.

"Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and these procedures will be conducted routinely," Tal Dvir, a researcher with Tel Aviv University's School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology and the leader of the team of scientists who created the heart, told NBC News MACH in an email.

A 3D printer builds a heart with human tissue during a presentation at the University of Tel Aviv on April 15.Oded Balilty / AP

A paper describing the research was published Monday in the journal Advanced Science.

Previously, scientists were able to 3D-print heart structures that lacked cells or blood vessels. But the new 3D-printed heart contains cells, blood vessels, chambers and other structures a heart needs to function normally. To make it, Dvir and his team took fatty tissue from patients and converted the fat cells into stem cells. These were added to a gel and then further processed until they turned into heart cells. The cell-containing "bioink" was added to a 3D printer and used to build the experimental organ layer by layer.

Tal said the next step for his team would be to explore ways to "teach" 3D-printed hearts to function normally and then transplant them into rats to see how well they work. The scientists will also explore the feasibility of 3D-printing larger hearts, with the ultimate goal of building functional human hearts.

That might be even harder than it sounds.

"There are many questions and technical hurdles that need to be addressed," James Yoo, a professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in an email.

Yoo said it's not clear that a printed heart of this sort could withstand the flow of blood under high pressure or that the printed structures would remain stable after implantation in the body. And he expressed concerns over the real-world feasibility of the "complex" process of cellular manipulation used to create the bioink — though he called the heart "a great advance in the field of bioprinting."

Doris Taylor, director of regenerative medicine research at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, said in an email that the Israeli scientists had "pushed the envelope" of regenerative medicine but declined to call the 3D-printed heart a major breakthrough.

"A successful bioartificial organ that is implanted in a human will be a major medical breakthrough," she said in the email. "This is certainly a step that could lead to a breakthrough, but we aren’t there yet.”

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Israeli scientists unveil world's first 3D-printed heart with human tissue

AFP — Scientists in Israel unveiled a 3D print of a heart with human tissue and vessels on Monday, calling it a first and a “major medical breakthrough” that advances possibilities for transplants.

While it remains a far way off, scientists hope one day to be able to produce hearts suitable for transplant into humans as well as patches to regenerate defective hearts.

The heart produced by researchers at Tel Aviv University is about the size of a rabbit’s.

It marked “the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Tal Dvir, who led the project.

“People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels,” he said.

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But the scientists said many challenges remain before fully working 3D printed hearts would be available for transplant into patients.

Journalists were shown a 3D print of a heart about the size of a cherry, immersed in liquid, at Tel Aviv University on Monday as the researchers announced their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Science.

Researchers must now teach the printed hearts “to behave” like real ones. The cells are currently able to contract, but do not yet have the ability to pump.

Then they plan to transplant them into animal models, hopefully in about a year, said Dvir.

“Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and these procedures will be conducted routinely,” he said.

This photo taken on April 15, 2019, at the University of Tel Aviv shows a 3D print of heart with human tissue. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

But he said hospitals would likely start with simpler organs than hearts.

– Producing ‘ink’ –
In its statement announcing the research, Tel Aviv University called it a “major medical breakthrough”.

Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death, according to the World Health Organization, and transplants are currently the only option available for patients in the worst cases.

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But the number of donors is limited and many die while waiting.

When they do benefit, they can fall victim to their bodies rejecting the transplant — a problem the researchers are seeking to overcome.

Their research involved taking a biopsy of fatty tissue from patients that was used in the development of the “ink” for the 3D print.

Dr. Assaf Shpira looks at a 3D print of heart with human tissue at the University of Tel Aviv on April 15, 2019. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

First, patient-specific cardiac patches were created followed by the entire heart, the statement said.

Using the patient’s own tissue was important to eliminate the risk of an implant provoking an immune response and being rejected, Dvir said.

“The biocompatibility of engineered materials is crucial to eliminating the risk of implant rejection, which jeopardises the success of such treatments,” said Dvir.

Professor Tal Dvir presents a 3D print of heart with human tissue at the University of Tel Aviv on April 15, 2019. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Challenges that remain include how to expand the cells to have enough tissue to recreate a human-sized heart, he said.

Current 3D printers are also limited by the size of their resolution and another challenge will be figuring out how to print all small blood vessels.

But while the current 3D print was a primitive one and only the size of a rabbit’s heart, “larger human hearts require the same technology,” said Dvir.

3D printing has opened up possibilities in numerous fields, provoking both promise and controversy.

The technology has developed to include 3D prints of everything from homes to guns.

Living heart printed on a 3D printer - Kommersant FM - Kommersant

In Israel, for the first time in the world, a living heart was created on a 3D printer, which consists of tissues and blood vessels, and also has cameras. True, at the moment it can only suit a rabbit because of its small size. But scientists from the University of Tel Aviv are confident that in the future they will be able to print a heart for a person. How did you manage to create an organ on the printer? And can we talk about a revolution in medicine? Anna Nikitina and Gleb Silko will tell. nine0003

Photo: Yaroslav Chingaev, Kommersant / buy photo

The world's first 3D-printed heart resembles a berry: its size is about 2.5 cm, although it took more than three hours to print. However, even now the achievement of Israeli scientists is called a medical breakthrough. The heart is made from human fat cells and connective tissue. Previously, synthetic substances were used for this.

In the future, this new technology will not only solve the problem of the shortage of organs for transplantation, but will also facilitate the transplantation process as much as possible, says Israeli journalist Sasha Vilensky: “The most global problem is the rejection of a transplanted organ by the body. There is always such a danger. But the whole point of interest is that in the case of a 3D printer, we are dealing with what is grown and printed from the cells of the patient himself, thus simply removing the issue of rejection. This is genius". nine0003

The problem of organ shortages around the world is really acute. In Russia, for example, in 2017, there were only 900 donors per 6 million people. And the most complex organ - the heart - was transplanted 250 times in a year, while it required almost 2 million people. The experience of Israeli scientists in printing hearts is impressive, and it can be used in other countries, says Yousef Hesuani, executive director of the 3D Bioprinting Solutions laboratory. True, according to him, it is still too early to talk about a revolution in medicine: “Scientists have used a very interesting material based on collagen - this is a protein in the body of mammals. In addition, it is from the point of view of creating a complex three-dimensional structure that the researchers are great, they did a really good job. However, the form does not yet determine the function, especially if we are talking about such a complex organ as the heart. nine0003

New approaches have been used, but unfortunately it is too early to say that there has been an incredible breakthrough in this area.

When, for example, the native organ is removed and a new one is transplanted, and the function is fully restored, this will become an unconditional revolution.”

Tel Aviv University itself, where the heart was printed, says that in the future the necessary organs can be printed directly in hospitals. Now similar developments are being carried out all over the world. Russian companies, for example, are trying to create an artificial liver and kidneys. True, this process is too expensive, and it is unlikely that in the near future the technology will be introduced on a mass level, says the director of the National Medical Center for Transplantation and Artificial Organs. Shumakova Sergei Gauthier: “What the Israeli doctors did is just great. This proves that these possibilities can really be used to create some kind of anatomical structures. As for other organs, such as the kidney and liver, our institute is also working on this. We also have bioprinters, but frankly, growing such tissue complexes is a rather complicated and expensive technology, which is very different from the traditional method of organ transplantation.” nine0003

There are already examples in the world when doctors managed not only to create artificial organs on a 3D printer, but also successfully transplant them, for example, a few years ago in Russia a thyroid gland was printed, which took root in a patient. And last year, scientists from Jerusalem implanted a prosthesis for the skull on a patient, and it was also created using three-dimensional technologies.

During this year, Israeli scientists plan to test printed hearts on rabbits and rats, and then start working on creating a human heart. nine0023

The first 3D printed living heart appeared in Israel - Manor Medical Center

Innovations

Israeli scientists at the University of Tel Aviv were able to create the first living human heart ready to work. A group of scientists organized in 2017 by the Israeli Ministry of Health. The task of the researchers was to study the use of 3D printing technology in medicine. Professor Tal Dvir headed the experiment. The heart was presented during a presentation at the university on April 15, 2019of the year.

Bioprinting of the heart - a breakthrough in the field of transplantation

In 2000, the American scientist Thomas Boland invented bioprinting technology by improving the inkjet printer. 90% of cells that appear in this way are viable. To date, it has already been possible to recreate:

  • Bone tissue
  • Ears
  • Heart valves
  • Cartilage tissue
  • Leather
  • Liver and bladder tissues
    • nine0052

    Bioprinting has opened up unprecedented possibilities in the field of transplantation. Implants from biological tissues, treatment after burns and obtaining a sufficient amount of dermis have already become a reality. Today, tissue models are used to test new medicines. 3D printed resin prostheses are available for purchase.

    Creating a living working heart is the next step on the path. The organ has all the necessary fibers and vessels, which is a breakthrough in the field of bioprinting. The scientists used a special 3D bioprinter capable of reproducing human cells and DNA fragments. For work, a human material was taken from which ink was obtained based on collagen and adipose tissue. The heart is distinguished from a real organ only by sizes that are smaller than usual. The experiment was repeated several dozen times. All resulting organs are capable of contracting and pumping blood. nine0003

    The practical significance of the discovery

    3D-heart is the opening of the road to the world of donor organs. Today, half a million people in the world are in need of a heart transplant, and only about 4,000 operations are performed per year.
    Thanks to the opening, it will be possible to create individual organs without long queues. The work of scientists to print out the heart took only 3.5 hours. The technology makes it possible to use the DNA of a person in need of a transplant for printing, which will ensure full survival and identity of the heart to the native one. nine0060 To test the viability of hearts in practice, they will be transplanted into animals. Going forward, the team will work on creating a human-sized heart. Scientists hope that in the next 10 years the technology will become available in the world's leading hospitals. The entire course of the experiment is described in the journal Advanced Science.

    Table: Development of 3D printing

    nine0068 Creation of the first bioprinter by Thomas Boland.
    Opening year The essence of discovery
    2000
    2006 Creation of several bladders at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine for patients from their stem cells
    2010 Obtaining artificial bone from polymeric materials at the University of Singapore.

    Learn more