© Image | CCTV

Breakthrough

Video shows a living heart being printed out, with clear veins.

Until now, scientists have only been able to print basic tissues, without cells or blood vessels.

© Image | Google

“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles, and chambers,” said Professor Tal Dvir, lead researcher on the study.

© Image | CCTV

“People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels.“

© Image | CCTV

Obviously, it’s a small heart, about the size of a rabbit’s. But the researchers said the technology needed to print a human heart is the same.

Cardiovascular disease

In accordance with WHO, cardiovascular diseases take the lives of 17.9 million people every year, 31% of all global deaths.

Triggering these diseases -which manifest primarily as heart attacks and strokes -are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.

© Image | Google

In England, cardiovascular disease accounts for 26% of all deaths, and many people wait for heart surgery. The breakthrough could reduce waiting times for surgery and save millions of lives around the world as patients no longer have to wait for a heart donor.

What’s more, compared with traditional organ transplants, the 3D-printed cells minimize the risk of rejection and complications because it comes from the patients themselves.

Hope

While it looks like a heart, structurally, it’s not yet functional and doesn’t pump. It is worth noting that this technology is still very far from being able to replace heart transplants. 

© Image | CCTV

The crucial next task, as Prof. Dvir says, is to teach them to behave like hearts; he explains that they “need to develop the printed heart further. The cells need to form a pumping ability; they can currently contract, but we need them to work together.”

There is still a long road ahead, but the researchers are excited about how far they have come.