Future projects: 3D printed hearts

3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technique that combines cells, compounds and biomaterials to create tissue-like structures used in medical and tissue engineering. Unlike traditional FDM 3D printing, which uses filament or plastic, bioprinting uses “bioink,” which is a mixture of biomaterials and cells.

As you might imagine, this technology is important to the medical industry. Its main use would be to save the lives of millions of patients in need of a transplant.
Although a completely artificial biological organ has not yet been successfully created, many companies and research groups have turned their attention to a fully 3D printed heart. Here are some of the most promising projects of 2018:

1. Biolife4D

   This year the company Biolife4D successfully demonstrated the true bioprint of a piece of human heart tissue. The process began with an MRI procedure, used to create a 3D image of the patient’s heart. Then, a digital model of the new heart was designed to match the shape and size of the original. And the bioink was created using patients’ heart cells, combined with nutrients and other biomaterials.
   For now, the company has successfully printed a patch of vascularized, conductive cardiac tissue. This means that the heart tissue has blood flow and can contract like a real heart. The company’s next steps will be to create valves, small-diameter vascular grafts, and a 3D-printed miniature heart.
   

2. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine

   Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is a major name in the field of 3D bioprinting. In April 2018, he and his team published a paper describing how they developed cardiac tissue using rat heart cells through 3D bioprinting.
   The cells are printed in precise structures. This allowed heart cells to align into an organized structure similar to human heart tissue. Dr. Atala and his colleagues were also able to test the effects of adrenaline, which increases heart rate, and carbachol, which decreases it. They found that both drugs led to the expected change in heart rate.
   However, as in the case of Biolife4D, there is still a lot of work to be done before we arrive at a functional 3D printed and vascularized 3D heart

3. Intimate silicon artifice

   A team of Swiss researchers has published a paper describing the development of a fully functional heart printed in silicone. Just like a real heart, this silicone version has left and right ventricles, as well as a chamber that pumps pressurized air. Unfortunately, the limitation of this current design is that the 3D printed heart only lasts about 30 minutes or 3000 shots before the material degrades and weakens.
   

Although we have not yet succeeded in printing a functioning human heart, the work of all researchers in the field of bioprinting demonstrates how we are rapidly approaching the ability to replace hearts, without the need for transplants.

Conclusion

3D Bioprinting represents a specialized and revolutionary sub-field of additive manufacturing that combines living cells, compounds, and biomaterials to construct intricate, tissue-like structures for applications in medicine and tissue engineering. The fundamental distinction from conventional 3D printing technologies, such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), lies in the material utilized: instead of inert plastic or filament, bioprinting employs «bioink.» This bioink is a composite material, typically an aqueous mixture of hydrogels and polymers, that serves as a temporary scaffolding and provides the necessary environment to encapsulate and sustain living cells during the printing process. This capability is crucial, as it allows researchers to create constructs—like the previously mentioned transparent skull or bioprinted heart—that closely mimic the structural and functional complexity of native human tissues, paving the way for advancements in drug testing, disease modeling, and ultimately, organ transplantation.