For the first time ever, scientists are successfully 3D printing actual, living human kidneys. Like the human livers printed in the past, the kidney are currently miniature in size, but with about 90% of the printed cells being alive, the potential for human use looks immensely positive.
To produce mass amounts of the living cells, samples of human kidney cells are cultured in large volumes and blended with hydrogel, a water- and nutrition-rich material that makes up the 3D printed kidneys’ base. Afterwards, the printed cells can survive for up to four months in a lab thanks to this gel’s rich nutrient source.
Because the product contains living, growing cells, the actual process is considerably different from plastic-based 3D printing.
Most incredibly, though, these adorable mini kidneys are able to function in exactly the same ways as their real, human-bred counterpart—they can break down toxins, metabolize, and secrete fluid. All of this is fantastic news for the millions of patients in need of organ transplants every yea—a small fraction of which actually receive the life-giving surgery. And though it may still be a few years before we start seeing this method being used in actual hospitals, judging by the the success of the fun-sized version, we’re well on our way to printing off brand new organs at moment’s notice.
On average, over 3000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month, and 12 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. Hope this kind of technology can be brought to reality soon, which can save a tremendous amount of people in the world.
It’s really amazing to see this happening. Because this technology will be able to save a lot of people while cloning technology still have some legal issues during the research and development stage. According to nature, scientist are using live cells as ‘ink’, assembling them layer-by-layer into rudimentary tissues. Therefore, they not only can make different organs, tissues but also can taylor it to different people.(http://www.nature.com/news/the-printed-organs-coming-to-a-body-near-you-1.17320).
However, I agree with the previous comments is that though the new technology seems exciting. It’s still only used in the lab. We don’t know if the cells can still function well in human body. Will there be any side effects after implanted especially in a long period of time, such as 10 years, 15 years.
Still, this is definitely an exciting technology because it brings new directions for treating a lot of diseases.
Printing a living organ is so cool. According to Motherboard, organ 3D printing is putting cells in as “bio-ink” and then printing them in layers, initially held together by hydrogel until the cells grow together. For example, the most common type of kidney cancer is renal cell carcinoma, so it’s probably no surprise that 3D organ can print multiple “tissue-relevant cell types” to recapitulate the renal tubes themselves.(http://motherboard.vice.com/read/3d-printed-kidney-tissue-is-here)
Although the technology is so promising, there are some problems I consider about. First, according to Gabor Forgacs, “Everybody’s dream is the 3D-printed organ. Are we ever going to get there? I’m not so sure.” There maybe no reason to doubt it functional organs could be made eventually, but that printing replacement organs on demand was still decades away. Second, how long can the 3D organ survive in human body? Now, the tissue responds like a real life human organ would for 42 days. Third, the price for this kind of organ transportation will be extremely high. How to lower the cost to help more people in need?
There are still lots of questions to consider right now. However, the technology itself is a good thing. What we need to do is improving it to a newer and better level.