The world’s first 3D-printed heart
3D-printing technology has developed drastically in recent years, enabling researchers to print everything from homes to guns. More recently, the technology has been adapted for use in the health sector.
According to the WHO, cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading cause of death. Heart transplants are currently the only option available for patients in the worst condition of heart health. Sadly, the number of donors are limited and many would-be recipients die in waiting. Moreover, while many people benefit, there remains the risk of their bodies rejecting the transplant — a problem that researchers hope to resolve through this major medical breakthrough: custom designing a new heart, using 3D-printing technology.
Earlier versions of 3D-printed hearts replicated the structure of a heart, but without the requisite cells or with blood vessels. For the first time, researchers have successfully extracted a biopsy of fatty tissue from patients to create the “ink” for a 3D-printed heart, complete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles, and chambers. Soon, this new heart model will under animal clinical trials.
Israeli scientists at Tel Aviv University announced the 3D-printed heart that they created with human tissue and vessels, about the size of a cherry, in their published paper in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Science.
The challenge that researchers now face are is to “teach” the printed heart to behave like a real one. As of yet, the cells are unable to contract, mimicking the heart’s ability to pump blood and circulate oxygen throughout an organism’s body.
According to the Tal Dvir project leader, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world. The procedures for producing hearts suitable for human heart transplantation and placing patches to regenerate defective hearts will be conducted routinely.
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