For the first time in medical history, researchers have printed a functional 3D heart using biological cells from the human body. The latest development in the field of regenerative medicine comes from a team of Israeli researchers who were able to “print” the world’s first vascularized engineered heart by using human cells and biological materials as the “bioink” for the 3D printer. Check out the details about this interesting development.
A team of researchers at the Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel recently revealed the first three-dimensional vascularized engineered heart via an official research paper in the Advanced Science journal. Although medical researchers have printed simple tissues without blood vessels, the TAU researchers were able to engineer a heart, complete with cells, blood vessels, and other functional elements.
While this is an important and noteworthy feat, you should know that there’s still a lot to achieve. For instance, this heart is really small and researchers have to further nurture the “printed” hearts in the lab, “teaching them to behave” like human hearts. They will also transplant the 3D-printed hearts into animal models to test their capabilities.
