Bioprinted Organs Not Yet Ready for Widespread Use

Bioprinting has advanced rapidly in recent years, but how soon will it be until lab-created organs could replace the need for donor transplants? 
 
GlobalData’s medical devices writer Chloe Kent said: “In a survey of 1,555 medical devices readers, 25 percent of respondents said that bioprinting would replace the need for donor organs within ten to 20 years, with a further 24 percent responding that it would be within just 10 years. That means just under half of the people surveyed expect to see bioprinted organs become a routine part of healthcare by 2040 at the latest. Much like 3D printing plastic objects, bioprinting is a form of additive manufacturing where the product—in this case a human organ—is generated layer upon layer. It’s apparent that bioprinting has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, but the headlines promising that human hearts will printed and transplanted in no time at all may be overstating the case somewhat. For example, a team of scientists at Tel Aviv University was able to grow a 3D-printed heart from human tissue in April 2019, complete with blood vessels, ventricles and chambers. The main downside—the heart was about the size of a cherry.”
 
Tel Aviv University researcher Nadav Noor, first author of the study, said: “To date, although the printed hearts contain living and beating cells which are located in the right positions, these tissues require prolonged cultures in highly controlled environments for the cells to form interaction and for the [whole] organ to beat synchronously. This is the next stage which we are currently working on and which we presume to be the most challenging in the process of engineering functional organs. The motivation for this research was the shortage of donor organs for transplantation so we are driven to realise this technology. However, it will take many years to achieve functioning organs.”