A NEW method of 3D printing can produce human-sized bone, muscle, and cartilage templates that survive when implanted into animals, researchers report."It has been challenging to produce human-scale tissues with 3D printing because larger tissues require additional nutrition," says Dr Anthony Atala from Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina in the US.His team developed a process they call "the integrated tissue and organ printing system". It produces a network of tiny channels that allows the printed tissue to be nourished after being implanted into a living animal.The researchers produced three types of tissue — bone, cartilage and muscle — and transplanted it into rats and mice.Five months after the implantation, the bone tissue looked similar to normal rat and mice bones, complete with blood vessels and with no dead areas, the research team report in Nature Biotechnology.Human-sized ear implants look like normal cartilage under the microscope, with blood vessels supply...
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