A project at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is being funded by the US Department of Defense, with the hope that it could one day be utilised on the battlefield. By utilising a portable bioprinter, the process would involve scanning the injury, sampling cells from the patient and printing a section of compatible skin.
Another similar technique currently being developed uses a three-dimensional printer combining donor cells, biofriendly gel and other materials to build cartilage.
Scientists from the Wake Forest Institute, Cornell University and the Medical University of South Carolina presented findings at an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington.
Dr Anthony Atal, director of the Wake Forest Institute, in North Carolina, said: "Once we make those new cells, the next step is to put the cells in the printer, on a cartridge, and print on the patient."
Once the new cells have been applied, which can take just a few minutes, they mature and form new skin. Researchers have suggested the technique could also be used to replace damaged organs and remove signs of ageing.
"Just imagine -- if you could take cells from a donor, culture them, put them into an ink and recreate an implant that is alive and made of the original cells from the donor -- how useful that would be in terms of avoiding rejection," commented Hod Lipson of Cornell University.
So far, experiments using cartilage have worked most effectively as it is resilient to the printing process. The basic technology uses a modified ink-jet style printer which can print in three dimensions, using cell cultures. Although the advances are certainly still in the early stages, with much greater research required before they can be practically deployed, demonstrations so far have shown great promise. Scientists have estimated that it will take more than five years before the research is complete.
via publicservice
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