Researchers use 3D bioprinting to create nose cartilage ANI | Updated: May 05, 2021 15:48 IST
Alberta [Canada], May 5 (ANI): In a breakthrough study, a team of University of Alberta researchers has discovered a way to use 3-D bioprinting technology to create custom-shaped cartilage for use in surgical procedures.
The work aims to make it easier for surgeons to safely restore the features of skin cancer patients living with nasal cartilage defects after surgery.
The researchers used a specially designed hydrogel a material similar to Jell-O that could be mixed with cells harvested from a patient and then printed in a specific shape captured through 3-D imaging. Over a matter of weeks, the material is cultured in a lab to become functional cartilage.
A team of University of Alberta researchers has discovered a way to use 3D bioprinting technology to create custom-shaped cartilage for use in surgical procedures.
Bioprinted Hydrogel Material
The 3D bioprinted cartilage is based on a specially designed hydrogel - a jelly-like raw material - that is mixed with human cells harvested from the patient. This mixture of the hydrogel and organic material is then printed in the specific shape of the target nose cartilage based on images captured with 3D imaging. Over several weeks, the fabricated material is cultured in a lab - under controlled conditions - to become fully functional cartilage. It takes a lifetime to make cartilage in an individual, while this method takes about four weeks. So you still expect that there will be some degree of maturity that it has to go through, especially when implanted in the body, explains Adetola Adesida, a co-author of the study and a surgery professor at the university s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, in a press release from the University of Alberta. She adds that functionally speaking, it also does the things that natural cartilage does.
A research group from the University of Alberta has identified a new approach to use 3D bioprinting technology to make custom-shaped cartilage that can be used in surgical procedures.