Israeli researchers developed a living heart printed in 3D with human tissue

Researchers from Tel Aviv University presented this Monday a living heart that pulsates with the aid of human tissue and a 3D printer, according to an advance that opens avenues for future transplants, reported the study center.

"It's the first time that a heart is made with a 3D printer with human tissue coming from a patient," explained research director, Professor Tal Dvir.

The heart "is complete, alive and throbbing" and this was done with "cells and biomaterials that come from the patient himself". We take a small biopsy of the patient's adipose tissue, remove all cells and separate them from collagen and other biomaterials, reprogram them for stem cells and then differentiate them. that they are cardiac cells and blood vessel cells, "adds the researcher.

After, biomaterials are processed "to convert them into bio-ink, which will allow printing with the cells ".

The resulting product, a heart of about 3 centimeters, equivalent to the size of a rat or a rabbit, "is still very basic," says the professor, for whom "the next step is to ripen that heart so that it can pump".

For the time being, "the cells can contract, but the whole heart does not pump. We must develop it further"To obtain an organ that can be transplanted to a human being, let us consider Dvir.

"The next challenge is to ripen these cells and help them communicate with each other, so that they contract together. You must teach the cells to behave correctly. And then, we will have another challenge, develop a bigger heart, with more cells. We need to find out how to create enough cells to produce a human heart, "he said.

Dvir has the I hope that "in 10 or 15 years, we will have 3D printers in hospitals, which will provide tissue to patients, perhaps hearts".

The study, published this Monday in the international magazine Advanced Science"Paving the way for the medicine of the future, in which patients will not have to wait for a transplant or take medication to avoid rejection. The necessary organs will be printed and totally customized for each patient, "said the university.

Professor Dvir works in the Laboratory of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the George S.Wise School of Living Sciences at Tel Aviv University, where he studies, among other things, nanotechnology strategies for the engineering of thick heart tissue and hybrid tissue manufacturing.

(With information from EFE)