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3D printing flesh


3D printer for human flesh can replace damaged tissue

A 3D printer that can print human flesh in order to replace injured or diseased tissue has been demonstrated by scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre in North Carolina.

Ear, bone and muscle structures that were printed by the machine and implanted into animals have subsequently matured into functional tissue and developed a system of blood vessels.

Although 3D printing has been used for medical purposes in the past, such as 3D-printed hip replacements, these used materials, such as metal, that are more traditionally used for bone replacements rather than tissue.

However, the new 3D printer is capable of producing fleshy structures. Dubbed the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System, it has been in development for 10 years.

The system deposits both bio-degradable, plastic-like materials to form the tissue ‘shape’ and water-based gels that contain cells.

In addition, a strong, temporary outer structure is formed. The printing process does not harm the cells.

The team said that one of the major challenges of tissue engineering was ensuring that implanted structures live long enough to integrate with the body.

In order to achieve this, they optimised the water-based ‘ink’ that holds the cells so that it promotes cell health and growth and they printed a lattice of micro-channels throughout the structures.

These channels allow nutrients and oxygen from the body to diffuse into the structures and keep them alive while they develop a system of blood vessels.

The technology was shown to work after test structures were implanted in rats and the structure was maintained two months later with cartilage tissue and blood vessels forming.

Printed muscle tissue was also implanted and tests confirmed that the muscle was robust enough to maintain its structural characteristics, become vascularised and induce nerve formation.

Jaw bone fragments were also printed using human stem cells, which after five months performed similarly well in the bodies of the rats.

"This novel tissue and organ printer is an important advance in our quest to make replacement tissue for patients," said Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and senior author on the study. "It can fabricate stable, human-scale tissue of any shape. With further development, this technology could potentially be used to print living tissue and organ structures for surgical implantation."

With funding from the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a federally funded effort to apply regenerative medicine to battlefield injuries, Atala's team aims to implant bioprinted muscle, cartilage and bone in patients in the future.

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3D-Printed Organs From Living Cells Could Help Boost Senses

Electronics often don’t mesh well with flesh and blood. Cochlear implants can irritate the scalp; pacemaker wires dislodge; VR headsets weigh heavily on the face. That’s why, for the past six years, Michael McAlpine has been Frankensteining alternatives. A mechanical engineer at the University of Minnesota, he creates prototypes of bionic body parts with nice, soft components—some of them alive.

The key to his electro-organic organs is his custom-made 3D printer, which McAlpine loads with silicones, metals, and human cells sourced from the university’s med school. (They come in a gel-like culture so they stay happy and functional, he says, while they’re handled.) His 3D-printed “ear,” made by enveloping a coil antenna in living matter, requires electrically conductive silver nanoparticles and cartilage-forming cells, while his “spinal cord” calls for neuron-­forming cells and a translucent column of silicone. Whatever the desired organ, the computer-­guided nozzles take up to an hour to extrude McAlpine’s goopy primordial ingredients into a mold. The result is then given a few weeks to rest in a nutrient-packed bath, which allows the cells to grow around and within any core electronics.

Ackerman + Gruber

Professor McApline holding a model hand which has an electronic circuit 3D printed directly on it. This is a representation of the lab's ability to 3D print electronics directly on the body (on real skin, on a real hand).

Before they’re human-ready, though, these replacement bits first need to work well in rats and other animals, McAlpine says. While tests show that his imitation ear can successfully perceive music—a recording of “Für Elise”—he has yet to connect the prosthetic’s radio receivers to a living thing’s nervous system. Same goes for his latest creation, an eye filled with a web of photo­detectors that can translate light into electrical signals—a first step to artificial vision.

Other researchers are excited by recent advances in lab-grown human organs, but McAlpine doesn’t think that should be the only goal. “I don’t know that you necessarily need to replace biology with more biology,” he says. He imagines enhancing his body parts with extrasensory capabilities, pointing to the medical tech company Second Sight, which thinks its retinal implant might one day allow blind people to see infrared wavelengths most of us can’t. “You could give impaired people superhuman abilities,” he says. “In the future, you’ll give the average person these abilities as well.” In McAlpine’s worst sci-fi nightmares, robots will be stronger and smarter than humans—so let’s start building bio-­augmented cyborg defenders now.

This article appears in the December issue. Subscribe now.

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