A new technique for 3D printing cartilage could "revolutionise tissue engineering and regenerative medicine".
Cartilage is pretty important. It provides structure to parts of the
body and softens the joints between bones. When cartilage is damaged, it
can cause a lot of pain. And, unfortunately, cartilage does not
regenerate well on its own, since it doesn't have a blood supply.
The
field of bioprinting -- fabricating biological material with 3D
printing -- is increasingly looking like an excellent option for
restoring damaged cartilage. Last year, the Department of Health
Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich developed a
method of 3D printing cartilage from biopolymers and cartilage cells.
Now a team, led by Paul Gatenholm at the
Wallenberg Wood Science Center
in Sweden, has developed a similar method and demonstrated its
viability as a medical treatment by testing it on mice. They presented
their research this week at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition
of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"Three-dimensional
bioprinting is a disruptive technology and is expected to revolutionise
tissue engineering and regenerative medicine," Gatenholm said in a
statement.
"Our team's interest is in working with plastic surgeons to create
cartilage to repair damage from injuries or cancer. We work with the ear
and the nose, which are parts of the body that surgeons today have a
hard time repairing. But hopefully, they'll one day be able to fix them
with a 3D printer."
Current methods of regenerating cartilage
involve implanting cartilage-building cells in a scaffold and growing
them in conditions similar to those found in the human body. The
3D-printing technique would print cells and scaffold together in the one
step.
The problem Gatenholm's team found was that this would
often result in a blobby mess. Creating a scaffold recipe that would
keep its structure was key. To do so, they turned to plants. Using
polysaccharides from brown algae and cellulose fibrils from wood, the
mixture still kept its shape.
To see how it responded in a living
system rather than a laboratory setting, the team implanted their
samples into living mice. Sure enough, the cells survived and began to
produce cartilage. The team was then able to increase this cartilage
production by introducing stem cells found in bone marrow.
The
technique is not quite ready for testing in humans, but Gatenholm is
working with a plastic surgeon to make sure that any clinical trials
comply with all regulations.
