3D-Printed Body Parts Could One Day Help Wounded Soldiers
West Point pre-med students are doing research that could lead to the 3D printing of “bio bandages” and small body parts.
So-called “bio printers” could print things such as bone cartilage and blood vessels the same way regular 3D printers print solid objects.
The research is still in the early phases but could have applications for soldiers wounded in battle.
Cadets at the U.S. Army’s West Point service academy are working with bio printers to determine the feasibility of one day printing body parts. The parts, printed with stem cells, could quickly adapt to a soldier’s body, preventing rejection of the printed body part. Such parts could include blood vessels, meniscus cartilage, and other minor parts.
Five teams of cadets—26 cadets in all—are working on three bio printing projects. The first two teams are working to develop bio-bandages for burn and wound care. Bio-bandages would be printed by medical teams using cells from a wounded soldier. These would be combined with 3D printed skin and stem cells to produce a quick-healing bandage with less of a possibility of scarification in the wound area.
The next two teams are working on how to produce blood vessels capable of carrying blood. The blood vessel project is useful by itself but also seen as a precursor to eventually printing blood-carrying organs. Another team is developing a working meniscus, a thick piece of cartilage that sits between the thigh bone and shinbone. The last team is working on the project’s most ambitious effort, printing a human liver.
Bio printers work on the same principle as 3D printers but use a different media to build solid objects. Bio printers use bio inks largely made of collagen, a naturally occurring protein in the human body, and stem cells to aid in battling tissue rejection.
Much of the work being done by the cadets is pure research—studying meniscuses, livers, blood vessels and the human body’s healing process and working to understand how the body uses the objects they want to print. But towards the end of the project, cadets will print both a meniscus and liver. Both are being produced strictly for research purposes and won’t be viable for use in the human body.
All of this could benefit wounded soldiers in the near future or during peacetime accidents in remote locations. A mobile bio printer at an aid station could combine cells from the soldier with collagen to produce bandages or cartilage, and perhaps even some day a blood-carrying body part such as blood vessels or a human liver.
Source: Army Times
You Might Also Like
