The Future of Organ Replacements

For anyone who may watch Grey’s Anatomy, you might have seen Dr. Meredith Grey’s three-dimensional printer that she obtained for her latest research feat in order to produce a liver model. Now, even though this is just a TV show, 3D-printed organs are real and are leading the way for the future of organ replacement. 

Tony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina, was a pioneer in developing artificial scaffolds to form organs by nourishing them with living cells in a lab.  In 1999, these findings allowed his team to develop tissue-engineered bladders, which were then implanted into young volunteers.  While his innovations were successful, Atala desired to generate the most sought after organ for replacement, the kidney.  Currently, more than 120,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, with kidneys topping the list.  By utilizing 3D-printing scientists intend to build replacement organs like kidneys, livers and hearts layer by layer with live human cells. 

However, it is obvious that printing a 3D kidney is not an easy task.  In fact, limitations arise in the printer technology utilized, especially for kidneys given the nature of their complex and intricate structures.  Engineers have not developed a 3D printer advanced enough yet to produce such a model that will be capable of what a natural kidney can do, that being absorption of nutrients, filtration of waste chemicals and excretion via urine.  Scientists in this field hope to employ stem cells extracted from patients capitalizing on their abilities to differentiate in order to ameliorate these details that limit their kidney models.

The first model of a 3D-printed kidney caught a lot of attention when it was presented at a conference in 2011. Progress has been made since then, but many findings are yet to be discovered. Hopefully in the next several years we will see more 3D-printed replacement organs to shrink the list of those waiting in line.  In the meantime, check out Grey’s Anatomy (in all the spare time you have) for more hot topics in science!  

References:

Hsu J. 2013. 3D-printed kidneys take small steps toward organ replacement. Live science. [Internet] Available from: http://www.livescience.com/41480-3d-printed-kidneys-take-small-steps.html