Russian robot printer has closed a human body wound for the first time in the world
One of the highlights of the Future Technologies Forum was a robotic bioprinter. With its help, for the first time in the world, a bioprinting operation was performed directly on a human being.
To avoid any confusion, we should immediately distinguish between medical 3D printing and bioprinting. The former is already widely used in medicine today. Let's say a person needs to replace a bone in his knee or jaw. A polymer, metal or ceramics is taken, and a bone skeleton is printed from it. It is populated with the patient's cells to ensure regeneration in the body. And then this entire structure is implanted into his body.
The first step in 3D printing of organs was made in Russia - an artificial thyroid gland was implanted in a mouse.
The fundamental difference with bioprinting is that only living human cells are used. When you have to print the equivalent of skin, those cells are mixed with a hydrogel that will allow them to stay alive for a long time. And this kind of compound - it's called bioinks - is filled into the bioprinter. It prints new skin layer by layer.
It should be recalled that one of the pioneers of bioprinting is a Russian scientist Vladimir Mironov, who published an article on this technology in 2003. Since then, serious progress has been made in various countries in printing skin and cartilage - flat and quite thin organs.
For an implant to live in the body, it must have blood vessels, they provide nourishment, oxygen delivery, etc. Through a thin and flat layer of gel, blood vessels from the body itself can grow into the implant. If it is large in size, they will simply not penetrate into it. And it will die.
In fact, the robot performed the entire soft tissue replacement operation, and the human only controlled its progress. Such a robotic bioprinter allows to reduce the area of the defect, which significantly reduces the amount of trauma and the risk of postoperative complications.
Only the very first step has been taken. If we want to print more complex "parts" and then functional organs, liver, kidneys, I am sure we should switch to 3D-technologies. They allow us to constantly monitor the process and make adjustments promptly. Only a robot can do this.
Research in the field of 3D printing of functional tissues and organs is being conducted in Russia, the USA, Japan, China, and France. Scientists have already passed the first stage - they have mastered the printing of "flat" bioequivalents of organs, such as skin or cartilage tissue, and have begun clinical implementation of the results. For example, Americans have printed an ear and implanted it in a person.
As for medical applications, bioprinting designs for cartilage regeneration will be created in the near future, possibly in 2025. Completion of clinical trials is projected in 2027-2029.