Organ transplantation saves many human lives every year. However, in transplantology there are many disadvantages: from the rejection of the transplanted sample to the banal absence of the necessary organ at a particular time. The last problem can be solved by the creation of artificial tissues. Moreover, significant progress in this area happens all the time. For example, a team of doctors from the startup BIOLIFE4D was able to print material suitable for creating a cardiac muscle on a 3D printer.
To realize this happened thanks to a special technology of organic 3D-printing, which with the help of accessible technologies allows creating viable tissues from living organs. Specialists from BIOLIFE4D have printed a kind of "plaster" from the cells of the myocardium, which, of course, can not replace the entire organ, but is able to repair the damaged area after, for example, myocardial infarction or other serious organ damage. In this case, the "plaster" is biologically inert and biocompatible, easily interacting with the cells of the heart.
However, the plans of the corporation BIOLIFE4D are quite ambitious. In addition to the fact that it is planned to mass-scale the introduction of the "plaster for the heart" into medical practice, so scientists are also aimed at printing a full-fledged functioning human heart. At the moment, the main obstacle is the difficulty of reproducing the anatomical structures of the organ with the help of 3D printing technologies. But experts are optimistic and if they succeed - this can be a real breakthrough in medicine and transplantology. After all, in theory, you can print and other organs.
A source - https://hi-news.ru