We are dealing with an expert, what perspectives open up for humanity by cell 3D printing technologies.
For the first time, Israeli scientists have managed to print a heart from human tissue using a 3D printer. Biologists at Tel Aviv University took fat cells from a patient, then transformed them into stem cells and printed an organ with all the ventricles, chambers and vessels. They will not transplant it to a person. First, the flame motor is not printed in full size, but on a miniature scale - it is about the size of a cherry. And secondly, the heart is capable of contracting, but does not "know how" to pump blood. Printing organs from the patient's own cells is the golden dream of transplantologists. First, the queue of people waiting for the death of the donor to save their own lives will disappear. Secondly, there will be no problems with organ donor rejection.
For a comment, we turned to Yousef Khesuani, Managing Partner of 3D Bioprinting Solutions. Recall that the researchers of this Russian laboratory were the first in the world to print and transplant the pancreas of a laboratory mouse.
"Patch" on the heart
Yusef Djordjevic, help assess the scale of the event: is it really a scientific breakthrough?
- This is a good, worthy experiment. Israeli colleagues used gel-on-gel printing technology. That is, they did not print into a Petri dish, but into a special container that contained a certain gel. This is a very interesting approach in terms of creating a complex organ. But, as you can imagine, form does not always define function. From the point of view of the organ's operability, a lot of questions arise; they can be answered only when such engineering structures are transplanted to animals. And one more thing, the media do not notice this, but the article deals with the printing of "patches" on the heart.
For the first time, Israeli scientists have managed to print a heart from human tissue using a 3D printer. Photo: REUTERS.
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What it is?
- Let's say there is a damaged area of the heart tissue and it needs to be replaced. The patching technology assumes that there is no need to re-print the entire organ as a whole. The affected area is removed and a printed patch is applied in its place, which is required to restore function. That is, we can already talk about the practical application of this work.
The path from mouse to human
But you printed and transplanted the thyroid gland of a mouse back in 2015. And from the outside it seemed that the cultivation of human organs was just a stone's throw away. How long will it take to get from mice to humans?
- We have not yet printed the human thyroid gland for exactly one reason: because we do not have adequate cellular material. What I mean? In the experiments on mice, we used embryonic cells. Naturally, we cannot and do not want to use embryos for humans. And if the cells of the thyroid gland are isolated from an adult patient, then they grow very poorly - we get an increase of 5-7 percent. This is absolutely not enough! But if we talk about some time horizons, then we expect that the first bioprinters for printing organs in clinics will appear in 2030. And so far we are moving in accordance with this schedule. But we must make a reservation that while we are talking about such flat organs as skin and cartilage.
“Last year you experimented with bioprinting aboard the International Space Station. Happy with the results?
- The lack of gravity allows us to create more complex geometric designs. We are satisfied with the results and we want to carry out some more experiments on board the ISS this year.
Cure for cosmic scurvy
Could you tell about the most “delicious” research?
- Firstly, we want to repeat experiments on printing human cartilage tissue and mouse thyroid gland in zero gravity on our bioprinter. Second, we are discussing joint experiments with American and Israeli startups to create artificial meat in space. They will send us muscle cells and we will assemble three-dimensional constructs from them. During long-distance space flights, astronauts will not survive on canned food alone! In addition, we will work on the creation of three-dimensional structures from bacteria, because a number of scientific works have shown that bacteria actively form biofilms under microgravity conditions and become resistant to antibiotics in a fairly short time.
What is this research for?
- Humanity is on the verge of an era when it will leave its cradle and go to other planets. Manned flights to Mars are a reality for the next 10 years. It is important for us to model the possible behavior of bacteria during long-distance flights in order to predict potential pathologies. A striking example: mankind did not know about the existence of such a disease as scurvy until long sea voyages began in the era of great geographical discoveries. There is a possibility that during long-distance space flights, the crews will also encounter new pathologies and diseases.
The first person to be transplanted is not a printed heart, but a thyroid gland
There are many laboratories in the world that are engaged in bioprinting, who is closer to the result? And where are we in this race?
- It is impossible to print all types of organs; no laboratory in the world does this. It is clear that those who deal with flat organs are closest to clinical trials, I mean the skin and cartilage. We do not work with skin cells, we conduct such experiments with cartilage cells, but the leading laboratories in these areas are located in Japan and the USA. But in terms of restoring function at the level of organisms, we are ahead of our colleagues. Here you can cite our experiments with the thyroid gland, as well as new magnetic-acoustic technologies.
Do you have an understanding which of the organs will be the first to be grown and transplanted to humans?
- In my opinion it will not be the heart, but some of the organs of the endocrine system - the thyroid or pancreas. That is, those organs that produce hormones. Firstly, because a large amount of research is carried out on them in terms of obtaining adequate cellular material - this is one of the important aspects. And secondly, these organs have a fairly simple internal organization - there is no complex system of excretory ducts. Hopefully we can be the first in the world to print and transplant a human organ.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV