Extending Human Life

Human organ and tissue engineering in three-dimension involves adding liquid, gelling it, printing more cells, and building layers. The end result: One day we may be able to fully create organs, bones and complex tissues.

But scientists now are limited to a maximum of about 2 inches of tissue thickness. Exceeding that threshold is one of the technology’s major limitations. The kidney prototype was the first organ researched in this manner.

“When you print something very thick, the cells on the inside will die,” says Dr. Thomas Boland from the University of El Paso. “There’s no nutrients getting in there – so we need to print channels there and hope they become blood vessels.”

Any human organ requires blood vessels to keep it alive and working properly. Without these blood vessels, the organ will die. This is the major challenge facing researchers for human application.

The question is: How do you get a printed organ to grow and thrive with blood vessels?

No More Rejections

Although there are several hypotheses surrounding this challenge, most scientists believe hard work, ingenuity, money, and even a little luck will one day place printed organs into live humans.

“In the future – maybe 50 years from now – we will be able to make very complex organs, even bones, and very complex tissues,” Dr. Boland says.

When this is accomplished, researchers won’t have to worry about rejection because the replacement part will be customized to the individual receiving it.



“With the printers, we have the ability to tailor the material very well depending on how much crosslinker and so on,” Boland says, “so we can actually match the properties of the heart cell (for example) with the properties of the tissue.”

Rapid prototyping is nothing more than layer-by-layer deposition of any materials.

“What is new is that instead of ceramic, instead of polymer, instead of some other inorganic stuff, we use living tissue and living cells,” says Dr. Vladimir Mironov from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Rapid prototyping is the process of quickly turning product designs into actual samples. Using a computer and a rapid prototype machine, one can build almost any object – limited only by size, complexity and material.

Mending Damaged Organs

Though we may be half-a-century away from being able to fabricate entire organs, scientists think they’re likely much closer to applications that will affect everyone’s life.

Boland is working with colleagues at the Medical University of South Carolina to build tissue to repair a heart that’s been damaged.

“The problem with heart tissue is that you can’t generate your own heart cells,” Boland says. “You’re born with a number of heart cells – maybe a billion or so – then, that’s it.”


Mironov says researchers were using two-dimension bio-printed materials for work with drugs and toxicity. Imagine living patches of skin that could be used to test medicines of even cosmetics?

Indeed, as scientists and researchers work to make organ printing a reality, Mironov sees major implications for mankind.

“This could have the same impact as Gutenberg’s press,” he says, referring to mechanical systems first assembled in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440.

Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a complete printing system, which perfected the printing process through all its stages by adapting existing technologies to printing purposes, as well as making groundbreaking inventions of his own.

Prolonging Our Lives

WMB believes rapid prototyping is quite viable, especially as scientists start to understand the mechanics of cell replication, genetics, stem-cell chemistry, and the like.

Further, WMB believes that as researchers start to unravel the mysteries and mechanics underlying cancer and cell malfunction, there will be engineering breakthroughs in organ bio-fabrication.

As researchers expand their knowledge, WMB believes we may much closer than we think in terms of implementing this technology for humans.

The end result, within a generation or so, could lead to reliable methods for prolonging life.

TechMan