“Bioprinting,” the use of 3D printers in medicine, is a whole new frontier. Doctors and scientists have been attempting to use 3D printing technology to produce live human organs and other anatomical parts since the early 2000s. In order to prevent their body from rejecting the transplanted organ, individuals in need of a new organ now have to wait for an organ donor who is a perfect match for them. Sadly, deaths occur often during this waiting period. But because the organ would be created using the patient’s own cells via 3D printing, there is no possibility that it would be rejected. According to specialists in the industry, these organ transplants are yet ten years off. Until then, simpler anatomical components like skin, muscle, and bone will be prepared.
How it functions
A digital blueprint is created and delivered to a printer in the simplest kind of 3D printing. After that, the printer emits plastic layer by layer and drop by drop to form the required shape. Nevertheless, the high temperatures used in this simple 3D printing would destroy living cells. As a result, bioprinting printers have been redesigned to operate without intense heat. This particular kind of 3D printing uses water-based gels that include cells and biodegradable, plastic-like components to construct the shape of an organ. After those cells attach to the structure, the organ is grafted or implanted into the body. The organ tissue receives nourishment and oxygen from the body until it produces its own blood cell system.
Even while medical professionals and researchers are already capable of creating artificial organs and tissue, this procedure has always been manual and time-consuming. The benefits of 3D printing are its increased speed, accuracy, and ease of replication. These days, printing one ear, for instance, only takes four to six hours.
However, there is a great deal of work to be done in the domain of printing cells for transplantation. The cells will perish if the body does not provide them with nutrition. Conversely, an unchecked proliferation of the newly formed cells would indicate that the patient has developed cancer as a result of the transplant.
