The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
The global shortage of donor organs is a cause for countless fatalities across the world. Although, diseases can be treated through organ transplantation it can come along with many complications. Not only is there a high demand for donor organs, there is also the risk of the body’s rejection of the newly implanted organ. Through the method of 3D printing organs, many lives could be saved as well as reducing the need for donor organs. Finding materials to create a suitable scaffold is the focus of many experiments. Materials that are used in organ printing are made from soft materials, therefore, suspended hydrogel techniques are utilized for printing organs and for creating vascularization systems in the printed organs. The vascularization level of 3D printed organs is the most complicated because of its vast and detailed preciseness. Detailed magnetic resonance imaging is taken to generate the 3D image of the structure and consequently print the image layer by layer as opposed to the older method of manually applying cells onto scaffolds. While many research teams have made progress with 3D organ printing, complex organs such as the heart and kidney are currently undergoing research to be implemented into clinical settings.
Recommended Citation
Sirota, C. (2016). 3D Organ Printing. The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences, 10(1). Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/sjlcas/vol10/iss1/12
