3D-printed ‘bones’ are made at room temperature for the first time with a special gel of living cells

A new innovation allows scientists to 3D print human bones from a person’s own living cells and, for the first time, the process has been performed at room temperature.

A team from the Australian University of New South Wales-Sydney has created a ‘bio-ink’ gel that contains a patient’s living bone cells in a calcium phosphate solution, which are necessary minerals for bone formation and maintenance.

Using a technique known as ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell suspensions (COBICS), the gel is 3D printed directly into the patient’s bone cavity rather than requiring surgeons to remove a piece from a different location.

The material then hardens within minutes of exposure to bodily fluids and turns into mechanically interlocking bone nanocrystals.

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A new innovation allows scientists to 3D print human bones from a person’s own living cells and for the first time the process has been performed at room temperature

The 3D printing of bone-mimicking structures is not new, but the method of the University of New South Wales-Sydney allows the process to be performed at room temperature for the first time.

This means that bones can be made on site in a medical room, along with the patient’s own living cells.

Dr. Iman Roohani of UNSW’s School of Chemistry said, “This is a unique technology that can produce structures that closely mimic bone tissue.”

“It could be used in clinical applications where there is a high demand for in situ repair of bone defects such as those caused by trauma, cancer, or where a large piece of tissue is excised.”

A team from the Australian University of New South Wales-Sydney has created a ‘bio-ink’ gel that contains a patient’s living bone cells in a calcium phosphate solution, which are necessary minerals for bone formation and maintenance

If a patient needed a piece of bone prior to this work, doctors would have to remove a section from another location in the body.

And 3D printing was only possible by first going to a lab to fabricate the structures with high temperature furnaces and toxic chemicals.

Associate professor Kristopher Kilian, who co-developed the breakthrough technology, said, “ This produces a dry material that is then put into a clinical setting or a laboratory where they wash it abundantly and then add living cells to it, ” says Professor Kilian . .

Using a technique known as ceramic omnidirectional bioprinting in cell suspensions (COBICS), the gel is 3D printed directly into the patient’s bone cavity instead of requiring surgeons to remove a piece from a different location

The special ink created for the process forms a structure chemically similar to bone building blocks, the scientists say.

‘The nice thing about our technique is that you can simply extrude it directly to a place where there are cells, such as a cavity in a patient’s bone. We can go right into the bone where there are cells, blood vessels, and fat, and print a bony structure that already contains living cells, right in that area. ‘

“There are currently no technologies that can do that directly.”

The special ink created for the process forms a structure chemically similar to bone building blocks, the scientists say.

“The ink is formulated to convert quickly, non-toxic in a biological environment and does not start until the ink is exposed to bodily fluids, giving the end user, such as surgeons, ample working time. ‘Said Dr. Roohani.

He explains that the ink combines with a collagen-like substance containing living cells, “it enables in-situ fabrication of bony tissues that may be suitable for bone tissue engineering, disease modeling, drug discovery and in-situ bone reconstruction. and osteochondral defects. ‘