14 DAY TRIAL // Human tissues are hard enough to make, but bone is actually among the easiest things to replace, or reproduce. As it happens, a new 3D printing method has been created, one that can be used to make cartilage.
Cartilage, that flexible biological tissue in our ear lobes and pretty much every joint, is, as you can guess, pretty important.
3D printed cartilage can be used to treat osteoarthritis, a disease that causes gradual disintegration of cartilage. It's a nasty way to go, or lose mobility. No one likes it when their joints creak and their vertebra lose the soft layer between them and the others.
The new 3D printing method was brought about by research from Rocky Tuan, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
It involves stem cells from the patient, biological factors that activate the division mechanism, and a scaffold made of biocompatible or biological materials (that last one gives the shape).
Previous 3D bioprinting technology used ultraviolet light to cure the so-called “bioink,” but UV light tends to kill living cells. The new technology uses visible light instead.
Eventually, Tuan hopes to invent a catheter that will allow him, or any surgeon, to print new cartilage right where it is needed.