The 3D 'human heart' is about to become a reality

The research team at the University of Louisville, USA has just announced that within 10 years, a human heart capable of transplantation will become a reality. The printing process takes 3 hours; 3D printed hearts will take 1 week to mature and can "stitch" with the blood vessels in people.

Dr. Stuart Williams, a researcher at Louisville University, USA, claims that he and his colleagues can 3D print a future full heart for transplants using recipient's tissues.

Dr. Stuart Williams

According to Dr. Williams, his team is now able to produce coronary arteries and has also been able to 3D print some small blood vessels in the heart.

"The United States has brought people to the moon in less than a decade, I give a decade to make it a little more comfortable.

Studies have reached the preclinical stage, showing that 3D printed blood vessels will connect to the recipient's tissue to produce blood flow. "

The University of Louisvilla Institute of Cardiovascular Discovery is currently developing special 3D printers to manipulate artificial hearts. The printers will initially be used to print specific parts of the heart, but the research team thinks they can print a full heart in three hours later.

3D cardiac printing involves the printing of cardiac, vascular, valves and electrolyte tissues. Once the heart has been printed, it will take scientists about a week to "ripen" the heart and transplant it.

Dr. Williams said some parts will need to be assembled after printing, including blood vessels and heart valves. Currently, technology is not developed enough to create a usable heart."Final assembly can be done by biological printing and placement of valves and blood vessels carefully."

The recipient also needs to have surgery to remove some tissue, such as fat and select the resilient cells. Then these cells will be put into a mixture to make 3D printing materials.

According to them, because the 3D heart is made up of the patient's own cells, the patient's body will not eliminate the transplanted heart.

In the past, scientists also used to print 3D other organs inside the body, such as the liver, but could not keep these organs alive.

According to Dr. Williams, he will solve this problem by helping the recipient's cells connect to printed blood vessels. Thus, blood can flow through the 3D blood vessels and keep the heart alive.

According to the American Heart Institute, 3D printers will become popular in the future as current X-ray machines. Currently, Dr. Williams' team has successfully printed 3D hearts of mice. A research team at the University of Kentucky has successfully used this technique to print bones for rabbits.