But one challenge with printing out organs—a heart, for example—is that they require connections to blood vessels, nerves and other tissue in order to function properly. So although it is possible to get mouse heart cells to twitch with an electrical jolt, it is not yet possible to grow the necessary connections to the rest of the body while the new heart is put in place. Regenerated skin tissue, however, is different: After it is grafted it absorbs plasma, and blood vessels eventually grow into it.

Vladimir Mironov, an assistant professor in the department of Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biology at the Medical University of South Carolina, says the big contribution from Atala is the use of living cells. "It's a new page in tissue engineering, the use of cells in vivo," he says. By focusing on skin, Mironov says Atala has avoided some of the problems associated with printing whole organs, and by printing living cells directly on the wound, the fluid suspending the cells is absorbed.

Mironov says one part about which he is skeptical at this point is how well the process works on large areas and on different skin types. Another issue is how to grow enough cells if a burn covers a very large area; the cells would have to be taken from the patient's skin so as to avoid rejection, so they would likely need to be grown in advance of printing them, which can take some time. That may not be practical in some cases.

5 Comments

1. 1. quincykim 02:29 PM 6/17/10

   Creativity and re-purposing of existing technology--I love it. I hope the obstacles are overcome and this can save lives and limbs, both on and off the battlefield.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. Tingting 09:46 PM 6/17/10

   I discussed with my friends on this topic days ago. I kept thinking they were joking 'cause I didn't expected the technique went so far, until I saw this news. Even though, I hadn't been convinced yet. To clone cells and pile them up to form a tissue is not so hard, but to enable the functionating of the rebuilt tissues is quite another matter. No matter how simple the cell is, it's still a complex system. I can hardly imagine how they 'copied' the sophisticated crosstalk in cells and the communication among cells to activate the rebuilt tissue. However, if the tissue-bioprinter does work, its design principle may work on the protein level which is more basic: copy proteins(easier than copy cells I think), rebuild the protein interactions then enable pathways. Organism-tissue-cell-molecule-gene, every higher-level is the complex system of the lower-level. Therefore, the design may be iterate in general no matter it's bottom-up or top-down. Once the design principle on one level is conquered, the principle on the other levels even on the whole system may be deduced. That's why I'm eager to know the exact design for this bioprinter to rebuild the interactions among the cell copies.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. Johnay 10:47 PM 6/17/10

   I think the term the author was looking for was not CAD but stereolithography. CAD deals with the design and in-computer modeling. Stereolithography deals with laying down material in layers to form a 3D physical object.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. jwp9447 10:43 AM 6/21/10

   Wow! That very interesting!!

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. Wayne Williamson 08:28 PM 6/22/10

   excellent...as tingting stated...it would be a good idea to lay down some blood vessels at the same time....

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this