3D-printed ‘bones’ of living cells are first formed at room temperature using a special gel that allows doctors to build structures minutes before surgery.
- Scientists printed a ‘leg’ with a special ink in 3D
- The ink contains the patient’s living cells, together with calcium phosphate
- The mixture hardens within minutes of mixing with body fluids
- It then converts into nanocrystals with bone that mechanically connect to each other
A new innovation enables scientists to 3D print human bones from a person’s own living cells and the process was done for the first time at room temperature.
A team at the Australian University of New South Wales-Sydney has created a ‘bio-ink’ gel that contains a patient’s living bone cells in a calcium phosphate solution, which are essential minerals for the formation and maintenance of the leg.
Using a technique known as ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell suspensions (COBICS), the gel is printed 3D directly into the patient’s bone cavity instead of having surgeons remove a piece from another location. .
The material then hardens within minutes after being exposed to body fluids and is converted into interconnected nanocrystals.
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A new innovation enables scientists to 3D print human bones from a person’s own living cells and the process was done for the first time at room temperature
The action of 3D printing of bone-mimicking structures is not new, but the method of the University of New South Wales-Sydney allows the process to take place at room temperature for the first time.
This means that bones can be created on site within a medical room, along with the use of the patient’s own patients.
Dr Iman Roohani of the UNSW School of Chemistry said: ‘It is a unique technology that can produce structures that closely mimic bone tissue.’
“It can be used in clinical applications where there is a high demand for in situ recovery of bone disorders, such as those caused by trauma, cancer, or where a large amount of tissue is resected.”
A team at the Australian University of New South Wales-Sydney has created a ‘bio-ink’ gel that contains a patient’s living bone cells in a calcium phosphate solution, which are the necessary minerals for formation and maintenance. of the leg.
Before this work, doctors would have to remove a portion of another place in the body if a patient needed a piece of bone.
And 3D printing was only available by first going to a laboratory to manufacture the structures with high temperature furnaces and toxic chemicals.
Professor Kristopher Kilian, who co-developed the breakthrough technology, said: ‘It produces a dry material which is then brought into a clinical setting or into a laboratory, where they have been plentiful and then added to living cells, ‘says Professor Kilian. .
Using a technique known as ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell suspensions (COBICS), the gel is printed 3D directly into the patient’s bone cavity instead of having surgeons remove a piece from another. place must be removed.
The special ink made for the process, according to the scientists, forms a structure that is chemically similar to bone building blocks.
‘The best thing about our technique is that you can only extrude it directly in a place where there are cells, like a cavity in a patient’s bone. We can enter directly into the bone where there are cells, blood vessels and fat, and push a bone-like structure that already contains living cells, right into that area. ‘
“There are currently no technologies that can do this directly.”
The special ink made for the process, according to the scientists, forms a structure that is chemically similar to bone building blocks.
‘The ink is formulated in such a way that the conversion is fast, non-toxic in a biological environment, and it only starts when ink is exposed to body fluids, which gives the end user, for example surgeons, ample working time. , ‘Said Dr Roohani.
He explains that the ink is combined with a collagen substance that contains living cells, ‘it enables the production of bone-like tissues in situ, which may be suitable for bone tissue engineering applications, disease modeling, medicine screening and on-site reconstruction and osteochondral defects. ‘