First in The World! Human Autologous Cell 3D Printing Ear Transplantation Succeeded

Zhitong Financial News, recently, 3DBio Therapeutics, an American regenerative medicine company, announced that it was the first time to successfully transplant a 3D printed ear made of patients' autologous cells to patients with congenital microtia.

The company said that this 3D printing organ transplantation technology is expected to be used to replace other body organs, including nose, intervertebral disc, meniscus of knee joint and tissue reconstruction after tumor resection. In the future, 3D printing technology may be able to print more complex important organs such as liver, kidney, pancreas, etc.

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Approaching 3D biological printing

The academic name of "3D printing" is "rapid prototyping technology", which was born in the late 1980s. Based on digital model files, it uses powder metal or plastic and other adhesive materials to construct objects layer by layer through printing. It is a cutting-edge technology relying on the comprehensive development of information technology, precision machinery, materials science and other disciplines.

According to the data of China Commercial Industry Research Institute, at this stage, 3D printing is mainly used in aerospace, medical, automobile and other fields, especially in manufacturing and medical fields.

Since the advent of 3D printing technology, the research on organ printing has been heating up, which is a hot direction in the field of 3D printing.

AuriNovo, a living tissue implant developed by 3DBIO, is a 3D bioprinted collagen ear implant made of hydrogel and patients' own chondrocytes (chondrogenic cells), which is used for the surgical reconstruction of the external ear of patients with congenital II-IV microtia to replace the missing ear of patients.

3DBio said that AuriNovo aims to provide an alternative treatment method for rib cartilage grafts and synthetic materials traditionally used to reconstruct the external ear of patients with microtia, which is less invasive and more accurate and flexible after reconstruction.

For this patient, the research team first performed CT scanning, 3D modeling and mirror symmetry on his normal left ear, and then isolated chondrocytes from the patient and proliferated into billions of cells.

Subsequently, these cells were injected into the 3D biological printer with collagen based "bio ink" to print out a copy of the healthy ear, and then underwent surgical transplantation. After implantation, the cartilage tissue was successfully regenerated and naturally healed.

At the same time, because the 3D printed ear is made of the patient's own cells, there is almost no rejection reaction.

3D printing may become the next industry hotspot

3D printing was first used to make medical models and customize rehabilitation medical devices. At this stage, it is also used in dentistry, orthopedics, surgical guides, implants, precision medicine, drug screening and drug dosage form design. At present, the application scale of the oral industry is the largest.

The application of 3D printing in some medical devices and dentistry has been commercialized; For implants, especially metal implants, the clinical research data is still in the accumulation stage; The 3D printing technology of functional tissues and organs is still in the laboratory research stage.

In 2014, Jingxi Hospital in Xi'an, China, used 3D printing technology to print the skull, helping a farmer with half of his skull injured and sunken to reconstruct half of his skull.

In 2015, the team of Tsukuba University in Japan announced that it had developed a three-dimensional model of the liver that can see the internal structures such as blood vessels at a low price using a 3D printer.

In 2018, scientists from the Regenerative Medicine Center of the Research Committee of Edinburgh University combined stem cell technology and 3D printing technology to successfully cultivate human derived 3D liver tissue, and showed therapeutic potential at the mouse level.

In 2019, Tel Aviv University in Israel announced that the world's first complete heart was printed using 3D human tissue, which includes cells, blood vessels, heart and ventricle.

In 2020, Fan Zhiyong's team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of California Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory jointly designed the world's first 3D artificial eye.

It is expected that the penetration rate of 3D printing technology in the medical field will continue to increase in the future, gradually covering multiple medical segments.

Heyihui medical viewpoint

In 2021, the global 3D printing medical device market will reach US $2.29 billion. It is estimated that by 2026, the market size will rapidly grow to US $4.49 billion at an annual compound rate of 13%.

It can be predicted that 3D printing technology will have further application in the medical field in the future, and the global 3D printing medical market has huge development potential