3D printing is a technique that is used to create three-dimensional structures. Printing 3D organs were first introduced in 2003 when cells are printed using inkjet. 3D printing is at its peak by organ printing.
Scientists start to work on this technique to get functional organs that can be used for organ transplantation and perform the same function as the human body’s original organs. First, 3D printed functional heart was revealed in April 2019. This heart was designed using human tissue.
This heart was printed using the extracellular matrix extracted from the human functional organ that contains collagen and glycoprotein. This matrix was placed in a hydrogel that acts as ink for the printing of the organ. In this design, cardiac cells print the heart’s outer surface, and the endothelial cells make the internal blood vessels and the interior surface of the heart.
Before this, an attempt was made to print a fully functional human heart in 2017 by some scientists, but that heart was made with flexible material instead of cells or tissues. That was not a successful attempt.
The first 3D printed functional heart is of the size of a rabbit’s heart, and it cannot be transplanted as a human heart. This heart can contract and relax, but one problem is all the cells do not work in collaboration. But scientists believe that the human heart can also be designed with the same technology, but the time required will be much longer, and billions of cells will be needed to design a full-sized human heart.
This 3D printed heart can be proved to be a huge innovation in the history of medical science. Many of the deaths in the whole world are caused due to heart diseases, and the only solution to these problems is heart transplantation, which will be possible shortly.