Scientists 3D-Printing Cartilage For Medical Implants

Molly McHugh writes Scientists and physicians at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered a way to use MakerBot's 3D-printing technologies to create cartilage and repair tissue damage in the trachea. From the article: "Researchers found that it’s possible to use the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer to print what’s called 'scaffolding,' made up of PLA, a bioplastic commonly used in in surgical implant devices. The team customized the printer so that living cells could be printed onto the scaffolding. The 3D-printed mixture of healthy cells found in cartilage, and collagen, eventually grew into the shape of a trachea that could be implanted into a patient."

Comments

Heart Surgery?

[mitcheli]

Man there are a lot of future implant recipients waiting out there...

Re:Heart Surgery?

[digsbo]

They've done some work on organs and muscles, but the strength/function doesn't seem to be very robust yet. It will happen eventually.

The Republicans will kill this quickly

[Anonymous Coward]

If they are so evil, wouldn't they be better of by making medicine cheaper => healty poor people => more cheap products & services produced by the poor healthy people for them to enjoy?

Ah, no.

[Princeofcups]

Did the mod even read the summary before writing the title? They are NOT printing anything that replaces anything in the body. Hence, not an implant.

Re:Ah, no.

[sandytaru]

No, they are. It's a 3D printed trachea. They 3D print the plastic scaffolding, and then they 3D print some incubated cells on top of the scaffolding, which they then incubate some more until it's ready to implant. They have a whole paragraph devoted to the "bio ink" made from cartilage cells.

To me the most fascinating tidbit was that they build the parts for the incubator itself with the MakerBot, saving many thousands of dollars.

pardon, but

[superwiz]

How is this different from what Harvard Apparatus is already doing in clinical studies?

Re:pardon, but

[sandytaru]

Seems like Harvard Apparatus uses bone marrow stem cells and not cartilage cells to seed the scaffolding. Extracting stem cells from bone marrow is incredibly time consuming and expensive. Cartilage, on the other hand, can be nicked off someone's ear.

Re: pardon, but

[Anonymous Coward]

They use a cartilage cartridge :-)

Horrid Operation

[JimSadler]

Surviving a trachia transplant is about a 50/50 proposition. The operation must be pure hell on the patient.

misread

[pellik]

Why would they need something so fancy to damage your cartilage and repair tissue?

Makerbot Technology?

[morgauxo]

Why so specific? There are a lot of comercial competitors as well as DIY printers in the same league as the Makerbot Replicator. None of this was available in today's affordable form before the RepRap project. This almost sounds like a very strange ad and unless there is something very special about Makerbot many contributors to 3d printing technology could find it offensive.

Re:Makerbot Technology?

[Darinbob]

If I needed one of these for myself, I would sincerely hope that the hospital could afford better than an entry level cranky 3D printer. It only works in this context because they're experimenting and because a scaffolding does not need to be very precise.

In some ways, 3D printing gets used because it's a way to promote 3D printing, even if you could get something cheaper and faster by just having someone carve the same thing out of styrofoam. Makerbot is like Arduino, hyped enough that people think they're intended for more than hobbyists.

Re:Makerbot Technology?

[morgauxo]

"If I needed one of these for myself, I would sincerely hope that the hospital could afford better than an entry level"

Agreed although they can use whatever they want if it's the best that they have and my alternative is death.

"It only works in this context because they're experimenting"

Yup.. that makes sense. They can prove the concept here before buying the million dollar magic bot.

"In some ways, 3D printing gets used because it's a way to promote 3D printing"

Ok... sure. I see that all the time. But they aren't promoting "3D printing". They are specifically promoting one entry-level 3D printer manufacturer. If they wanted to promote 3D printing they could just say "3D printing technology" or if they wanted to emphasize that this was being done with tools that mere mortals can obtain or at least get access to they could say something like "hobyist leve 3d printing technology". By why is Makerbot somehow being singled out as unique? They are basically just RepRap technology in a shinier box, not unlike a couple dozen or so other that are out there.

No, I'm not commenting on the fact that they used a Makerbot, I'm commenting on the fact that they refer to it as Makerbot technology as though 3D printing is something solely owned and developed by Makerbot.

What are they, Kleenex?

"...even if you could get something cheaper and faster by just having someone carve the same thing out of styrofoam."

Doubtful.. they need to use a material that is biocompatible. I don't know what all materials that includes but unless styrofoam or something similarly easy to work with is one of them...

I didn't know that PLA is biocompatible enough to make implants. I guess it makes sense given what PLA is made from.

I wouldn't want to try to carve a block of PLA by hand! Injection molding would probably be best for mass-production. For prototyping though... 3D printing probably IS the best tool. Actually... since these things are for implanting in real human bodies.. which have all sorts of natural variances this may be one of the very few industries where 3D printing makes sense in production, beyond the experimental stages.

Up next...

[The Grim Reefer]

3-D printed Kardashian ass implants.