3D printed individualised body replacement parts are a step closer after a breakthrough in the printing of tough, flexi-materials.
A team lead by the University of Colorado – Boulder has announced they have developed a new way to 3D print materials for use in the heart and joints.
Previous materials were not strong enough to withstand the constant beating of a heart or tough enough to endure the constant load on joints.
Senior study author Jason Burdick said the new material also attached easily to wet tissue.
The study report, published in the journal Science, said the breakthrough helped pave the way “toward a new generation of biomaterials, from internal bandages that deliver drugs directly to the heart to cartilage patches and needle-free sutures”.
“Cardiac and cartilage tissues are similar in that they have very limited capacity to repair themselves,” Professor Burdick said.
“When they’re damaged, there is no turning back. By developing new, more resilient materials to enhance that repair process, we can have a big impact on patients.”
The research report said that, historically, biomedical devices had been created using moulding or casting.
This worked well for mass production of identical implants but were not practical for personalising implants for specific patients.
Unlike traditional printers, 3D printers deposit layer after layer of plastics, metals or even living cells to create multidimensional objects.
Using 3D printing for body parts has been hampered by traditional 3D-printed hydrogels tending to either break when stretched, crack under pressure or being too stiff to mould around tissues.
“Imagine if you had a rigid plastic adhered to your heart. It wouldn’t deform as your heart beats,” Professor Burdick said. “It would just fracture.”
To achieve strength and elasticity, the research team learnt from worms, which repeatedly tangled and untangle themselves around one another in three-dimensional “worm blobs” that had solid and liquid-like properties.
Previous research had shown that incorporating similarly intertwined chains of molecules, known as “entanglements,” could make them tougher.
Professor Burdick said he could see a day when 3D-printed materials could be used to repair defects in hearts, deliver tissue-regenerating drugs directly to organs or cartilage, restrain bulging discs or even stitch people up in the operating room without inflicting tissue damage like a needle and suture could.
The full report is on the University of Colorado website.
