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Scientists 3D print cartilage to repair damaged windpipes
Believe it or not, scientists aren't yet finished discovering new ways to 3D print body parts. A team at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research has developed a 3D printing technique that lets them produce cartilage for repairing damaged tracheas, better known to you and I as windpipes. They use an off-the-shelf 3D printer (in this case, a MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental) to create a scaffold for the cartilage out of the same PLA filament you'd use for everyday 3D printing projects. After that, they cover the scaffold in a mix of chondrocytes (healthy cartilage cells) and collagen, 'baking' it in a custom bioreactor to make sure the cells grow properly.
First synthetic windpipe transplant paves way for post-op, immunosuppresive drug-free future
Science can do some wonderful, heartstring-tugging things. Take this for example: surgeons have triumphantly performed the first ever synthetic organ transplant. Cancer-stricken Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene was the grateful recipient of this life-saving surgical breakthrough, performed by Prof. Paolo Macchiarini at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden. The revolutionary operation comes with a zero rejection rate and requires no donor -- a huge relief for those stuck on lengthy waiting lists. Using a 3D scan of Beyene's windpipe, scientists at University College London crafted a highly-porous nanocomposite tracheal scaffold replica and covered it in stem cells harvested from his bone marrow. Within two days, the stem cells had worked their magic, weaving a brand new transplantable facsimile that is "indistinguishable from a normal healthy one." And since the procedure uses no foreign-born tissues, patients can look forward to a full-recovery sans mandatory immunosuppressive drugs, a major plus for post-op quality of life. With the surgery a success, Prof. Macchiarini's moving on to the next patient in need -- this time, a nine-month-old Korean baby with a malformed trachea. Doctors -- saving lives and warming hearts. Press release of the medically wondrous kind after the break.
