Bioprinted Human Organs And Body Tissues Set To Revolutionize Medicine (welcome to the world of biotechnological breakthroughs where 3-D printing technology is used to create body parts for people)
Hello Steemians. Great to have you on my blog today. The topic we are going to shed light on today is a rarely known topic among both non-medical and medical professionals. This is the beauty of being a Steemian. Congratulations.
In today's medicine, those who are down with organ or tissue damage are usually subjected to a transplantation procedure during which the damaged organ or tissue is replaced with new one. In most cases, the new organs and tissues are harvested from donors, who may have been struck by a serious health defect like stroke, heart failure or badly incapacitated following involvement in automobile accident and so have slim chance of surviving.
However, every year, new improvements are introduced into every field of science both medical and otherwise. Better ways to manage stroke, diabetes and other untreatable and treatable ailments are being discovered. Automobiles are being improved to combat high rate of accidents. As a result, donors of organs and tissues for transplantation procedures are increasingly becoming difficult to come by. This aggravates conditions of patients with organ damage who would depend on organ transplant to live again, with lots of them actually died waiting to undergo transplantation procedure.
To arrest this situation, medical researchers and scientists have been looking for ways to build human organs and tissues from scratch to replace damaged organs, bones, limbs and other body parts needing replacement. One promising alternative to this dilemma is to print the concerned body part in a type of 3-Dimensional printing technique called bioprinting
Before scientific interest to use 3-D technology in making human body parts, the technology has found wide applications in many fields of human development. And this were actually one of the major factors that convinced researchers to strongly believe that these results can be replicated in humans.
www.mirrow.co.uk reports that...
A team of regenerative medicine students at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre in North Carolina, USA, recorded breakthrough when they used their own customized 3-D printers to create body parts, which were found to mature into functional tissues and even developed a system of blood vessels when planted into animals. The team's report was published in the Scientific Journal of Nature Biotechnology. sources
Speaking on the development, the director at the center who is also one of the study's senior authors, Anthony Ayala, said..
"This novel tissue and organ printer is an important advance in our quest to make replacement tissue for patients. It can fabricate stable, human-scale tissue of any shape. With further development, this technology could potentially be used to print living tissue and organ structures for surgical implantation."source
While majority of works on this medical breakthrough are still experimental with monkeys and rabbits used as test specimens, there are few instances where the technology is actually used in humans with no complications reported so far.
Conclusion
It is true that works on this technological breakthrough are still at its infancy. But with many research organizations, governmental agencies and big pharmaceutical companies already shown deep interest, it is only a matter of time before complete organs and every body parts would be created via 3-D printing technology and made readily available for transplantation procedures. A development that would see to a considerable reduction in wait-time for transplant patients and therefore tremendous increase in their survival rate.
We are indeed getting closer to the plug-and-play human body.source.
Thanks for reading
Na Your Naija Boi, Euro
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References
Thanks @jodipamungkas and @gbenga for the badge
This is truly very interesting. Thank you for supporting steemiteducation!
My pleasure that you found it interesting. Thanks
This, my friend, is the wonders of tissue engineering a branch of biomedical engineering. Beyond that, it is the door to regenerative medicine.
As we speak, researchers in the University of Toronto Canada, The University of Manchester in UK and University of Southern California US among many others are critically examining the development and synthesis of hydrogels capable of printing bioactive and biodegradable implants that would serve as scaffolds for the regrowth of damaged body parts; serving as a substitute while the native cells grow at the same time being degraded and replaced by these growing native cells/tissues that feed on it.
@eurogee apart from deleting the need for a donor, the issue of transplant incompatibility/rejection is eradicated since the hydrogels are also fitted with cultured cells from the patient and promote the growth of native cells in the region where the transplant is implanted.
Allthough research is still ongoing, the great news is that the technology isnt that far from us anymore as cartilage transplants have already shown reasonable successes. Sadly, this technology is still miles away from Nigeria where it would have proved very useful considering the number of accidents and organ failures we record each year. Its a good one though and one which I hope to be part of sooner than later. ThumbsUp
I wish I were a whale, would have super upvoted you. Thanks for this exposition. It has given more credence to this article.
Followed
My pleasure bro, you wrote on a topic I am passionate about and have a soft spot for. I am a biomedical engineer focusing on biotechnological advancements that would improve the potentials of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, some years back I research on pancreas regeneration for Type I diabetes victims.
This is awesome. This will definitely reduce the deaths associated with body parts harvesting. I think we are in the world of Bios, we have Biomining, bioluminescence, biowarfare, bioethanol, bioweapons etc Biology world is definitely dynamic
Hello @zoneboy
You seem to be very verse in innovation scientific breakthroughs. I urge to blog along this line where you have comparative advantage. You have potential to very successful in this field.
Incase you choose to blog in the line I am suggesting, make 'steemstem' one of your tags whenever your article is based on innovation science.
@eurogee and @euronation
Yeah @eurogee. It's my field. I will definitely look into that line. Also thanks for the tag advice. Thumbs up Boss
The company KrioRus supports innovations in the field of biotechnology and in the near future it intends to contribute to the development of cryonics. In order to create a technology of reversible freezing, we now want to unite all the people who are depraved in our ambitious project (https://en.cryogen.me/). Bioprinting and cryonics pursue one goal - to give people more opportunities for prolonging life.
Wow.. Thanks for the information
Technology has been bringing forth great achievements in the world of science. I only pray it would be used for the greater good of humanity and not the other way round.
Hello @cwen sis.
I am very happy to see you here. The decision to visit my blog is an eloquent testimony to your type of personality. This act of sportsmanship has just weakened my nerves. Indeed characters, when used positively, are effective weapon that can get at any person. This I appreciate in no small measure.
Sure this is the ultimate aim.
NB: I will be pleased to have you Back in @euronation whatsaap group again. Please reach out to your colleague in @steem-lagos, @sweetestglo-eu to add you back.
Kind regards
@eurogee and @euronation
Ok thank you.
Would be helpful if you note (paywall) for any references you use that aren't free to access!
I humbly seek more light on what you mean sir/Madam? I don't quite understand your point.
your forth reference requires a subscription. I think there's a limit to how much you can view without paying, and I've already passed that so I couldn't read it =( Good to clarify
Thank you very much. You are a great person.
Hello @eurogee, this is another brilliant treatise on the validity of technology in making life worth living. Bioprinting has been on an upward trend with the advent of 3D printing and its just a matter of time before we see it becoming more easily available.
And when that time comes...morbidity and mortality from RTAs and organ-damaging diseases will drop to a manageable %ge.
Thanks so much for sharing. Cheers!
#Hug-Challenge!
Hello @NairaDaddy
You are very very light. This was exactly how develop of vaccine started. Today vaccines of all types are readily available. I therefore have no doubt that in new future, one would be able to walk into a Healthcare center and purchase any body part of choice.
Thanks for visiting
@eurogee and @euronation
This is really a great means of saving lives. Though the cost might not be favourable for now but science is making wave big time.
Thanks for this @eurogee
You are very right @maintain4real-eu
It will definitely take a while for these guys to make a complete human. If that happens then the Era of robots will begin.
Hello @samstickkz
Thanks for your observation. However, the science of 3-D based bioprinting technology doesn't seek to create a complete human being but parts of the body and body organs,which would be made readily available for implantation procedures.
@eurogee and @euronation
Exactly my points, they could just merge all the parts. lol
Hahahababsbsbsbbsbsbshahahaba..... I can't stop laughing. Man, you just cracked me up!
Wow, thanks for the update. Science and Technology is really doing our generation a great good, many lives are saved now than what is obtainable in 10-20 years ago.
Hello @dubem-eu
You are very right. Science is very dynamic and will continue to witness unending improvement, which would have direct positive effect on human development.
@eurogee and @euronation
Definitely bio-printing is the new science innovation for this jet age thanks euro for the insight
Hello @ijele the boss
I am happy to learn that you are in agreement with the context of this article. You know back in school days, you were so dogmatic and ready to argue in any subject you held a contrary view on. Hahaha
Thanks for visiting
@eurogee and @euronation