3D Printing Organs, Blood Vessels and All, Takes a Big Step Toward Reality

Summary
Scientists at Harvard have made a breakthrough in the printing of organs, and more specifically, blood vessels. The method consists of using three different kinds of "ink", consisting of extracellular matrix,  a combination of extracellular matrix and living cells, and a third tissue which would trace out vessels. This third "ink" was designed in such a way that as it cooled, it would melt and be drained out of the printed tissue, leaving blood vessels behind.

This method of printing human tissue and organs could have a use in printing organs for transplant, however is more immediately useful for creating tissues to test drugs. The vessels would allow for the tissue to survive for longer durations of time, ultimately allowing for longer tests to be performed on the tissues. It is, however, currently unknown as to how well this method of printing will scale. If it can produce actual organs rather than ambiguous lumps of cells, then it could have a serious potential use in testing drugs and in producing organs to be transplanted.

Significance
This article relates to our unit on the circulatory system. By allowing for longer and more accurate drug tests, this could allow for better treatment of various circulatory diseases, and more broadly could allow for various types of organ transplants and more effective medications.

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