The Beat Goes On with 3-D Bioprinting
The heart is the body’s workhorse, beating an average of 60 to 100 times a minute to pump blood and ferry oxygen throughout the body. Disease and trauma can affect this mighty muscle’s performance, however, reducing the quality of life and even leading to death for millions of people worldwide.
Biomedical and tissue engineers have long sought ways to fabricate replacements for this vital organ. By harnessing the power of 3-D printing, engineered bioinks, and novel materials, researchers are coming closer to realizing that goal.
Biomedical engineers at the University of Minnesota, for instance, recently reported building a working heart pump with real human cells. Chinese researchers are exporing ways to repair heart defects 3-D printing parts in the body itself, while Wake Forest University’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine is pioneering ways to grow human tissue and organs in the lab. (Read “Human Spare Parts,” ASEE Prism magazine’s February 2015 cover story, and “Heal Thyself,” a feature on in situ bioprinting of skin for burn victims and other breakthroughts in the January 2021 issue.)
A team led by Carnegie Mellon University’s Adam Feinberg, a professor of biomedical and materials engineering, has created the first full-size 3-D bioprinted human heart model, giving surgeon’s a new tool for planning and practice. Their technique, called Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH), was created from MRI data using a specially built 3-D printer to realistically mimic the elasticity of cardiac tissue and sutures.
This milestone represents the culmination of two years of research, holding both immediate promise for surgeons and clinicians, as well as long term implications for the future of bioengineered organ research.
FRESH 3-D printing uses a needle to inject bioink into a bath of soft hydrogel, which supports the object as it prints. Once finished, a simple application of heat causes the hydrogel to melt away, leaving only the 3D bioprinted object.
The Feinberg team’s heart is made from a soft, natural polymer called alginate, giving it properties similar to real cardiac tissue. For surgeons, this enables the creation of models that can be manipulated in ways similar to a real heart. “We can now build a model that not only allows for visual planning but allows for physical practice,” Feinberg was quoted in a Carnegie Mellon news story in November 2020. “The surgeon can manipulate it and have it actually respond like real tissue, so that when they get into the operating site they’ve got an additional layer of realistic practice in that setting.”
Filed under: Special Features
Tags: 3-D bioprinting, Adam Feinberg, Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, heart, regenerative medicine, replacement body parts, tissue engineering
