Israeli scientists have presented at the beginning of the week, a heart made of human tissue, which has been produced by 3D printing. They hope to be able to with the technology of the day, fully-functional tissue and a complete heart can be prepared which are suitable for the Regeneration of defective heart or Transplantation in people.
The scientists of the University of Tel Aviv produced by the heart is about as large as a cherry. Tal Dvir, who headed the project, says: "For the first Time, a whole heart with cells, blood vessels and the heart developed chambers and successfully printed. Previously, it was able to print the structure of a heart, but not with cells or blood vessels."
To have a fully functioning 3D printed hearts for Transplantation in patients are available, it is still a lot of time, because the researcher must provide the printed the heart to behave like a real heart. The cells can be currently together, but still not pumping. Dvir plans to test in about a year, first the heart in animal models.
According to the world health organization, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and organ transplants are in many cases the only Option to help the patient. The number of donors is limited, however, and many patients die on the waiting list. Even with a successful transplant, there is often a rejection because the immune system of the donor body recognizes as foreign. Rejection reactions can be avoided, if patient’s own tissue, as the researchers from Tel Aviv have done: use it as a "Tinte" for the pressure cells obtained from a biopsy of the patient, specifically, and, increasingly, have to be treated.