A group of researchers from the University of Tokyo Hospital has announced that it is on its way to having a 3D printer produce custom-built human body parts - skin, bones, joints -. Professor Tsuyoshi Takato said that his team is working to develop a new generation of "3D bio-printers", which makes it possible to manufacture sheets of biomaterial with which to build organs and tissues to measure.
The material with which the 3D printer works to mimic the structure of human organs is a mix of stem cells, proteins that trigger the growth process and a synthetic substance similar to human collagen. In a few hours, the printer produces a plant by importing data from a computer equipped with a tomographic scanner.
From the experiments conducted so far, it appears that such implants adapt satisfactorily to natural tissues and organs. "Generally, to make a bone or cartilage implant, a sample of these tissues is taken from a healthy part of the patient's body," says Professor Takato, "but with our custom-made implants, there is no need to remove anything."
The main obstacle to overcome is the heat developed by 3D printers during the manufacturing process of the implant, heat that damages the stem cells and proteins used as base material. “We haven't completely solved the problem yet,” admits Takato “but we are making progress and we hope to have positive results soon”.
The synthetic collagen that replaces the human one is "branded" Fujifilm: the Japanese company produced it, in fact, by studying the collagen used in photographic films. "The fact that this collagen does not derive from animal organisms as in previous implants" Takato observes "eliminates the risk of infections, even serious ones, such as mad cow disease".
