#biolife4d

3D printed miniature heart

Chicago-based biotech company BIOLIFE4D has successfully 3D-bioprinted a mini human heart. the heart was printed with patient-derived cardiac muscle cells and has the same structure as a full-sized heart. it features four major internal chambers and other structures, like valves, that are usually found inside the human heart.

BIOLIFE4D used a specially designed proprietary bioink, which shares similar properties to gelatin. then, layer by layer, the miniature organ was 3D-printed, supported by an additional scaffold that encased the heart. after that, the heart was transferred to a bioreactor that mimics the conditions of the human body, helping the cells fuse together and become tissue.

Scientists hope that this breakthrough could offer a roadmap toward bioprinting a full-size human heart. in the meantime, it could also be used by pharmaceutical companies as a tool to test drug treatments and medications. the long-term goal is to eventually print a full-sized functioning human heart that can be used for transplant patients.

The company first bioprinted human cardiac tissue in june 2018. earlier this year it began into induced pluripotent stem cells (ips cells), which can differentiate into different types of cells, including cardiac cells.

3D printed heart projects of 2018 (continued)

3D bioprinting is the use of the additive manufacturing techniques that combine cells, compounds and biomaterials to create tissue-like structures used in medical and tissue engineering. Unlike traditional FDM 3D printing, which uses filament or plastic, bioprinting uses “bioink”, which is a mixture of biomaterials and cells.

As you can imagine, this technology is massively important for the medical industry. Its primary use would be to save the lives of the millions of patients who are in need of a replacement organ or transplant. As it stands, around 20 people die every day in the United States waiting for a replacement organ. To make things worse, host rejection of the organ eventually requires another replacement. Being able to 3D print artificial organs using patients own cells can eliminate this major deficit in the transplant industry.

2. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a huge name in the field of 3D bioprinting. His team has already successfully engineered and transplanted bladders into living patients. In April 2018, they further published a paper describing how they 3D bioprinted functional and contractile cardiac tissue using rat heart cells.

The cells were suspended in bioink and printed into precise structures. This allowed for the cardiac cells to align into an organized structure similar to human heart tissue. Dr. Atala and his colleagues were even able to test the effects of adrenaline, which increases heart rate, and carbachol, which lowers heart rate. They found that both drugs resulted in the expected change of heart rate.

However, just like Biolife4D’s heart patch, there is still a lot of work to do before we get to a full-sized functional and vascularised 3D printed heart.

3. Artificial Silicone Heart

Although not bioprinted, in 2017 a team of researchers from Switzerland published a paper describing the development of a fully functionally beating heart 3D printed in silicone. Roughly the same size as a human heart and imitating the same function, their work demonstrates how we’re quickly approaching the ability to replace hearts without the need for transplants.