It Is Now Possible to 3D Print Artificial Cartilage for Living Tissue Replacement

3D printing has reached new frontiers in the medical field, as a research team at TU Wien has achieved a breakthrough by leveraging a precise 3D printing process to produce artificial cartilage. This innovation enables the laboratory cultivation of living replacement tissue tailored to specific needs, a crucial advancement for medical applications. Indeed, the hope is that the technology could prove invaluable in scenarios such as replacing damaged cartilage, where precise tissue formation is essential.

The achievement represents a significant leap forward in the medical industry, since the development of cartilage tissue presented numerous challenges prior to the adoption of these precision 3D printing techniques. Previously, attempts made to cultivate tissue in the laboratory using alternative methods often encountered significant complications. The production of larger tissue is particularly challenging with cartilage cells, as a structure is created between the cells in the cartilage tissue that does not allow the various cell spheres to grow together in the correct formation.

The football-like support structure.

According to one of the study’s authors, Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Kopinski-Grünwald from the Institute of Materials Science at TU Wien, cultivating cartilage cells from stem cells poses less of a challenge. The primary issue lies in the lack of control over the resulting tissue’s shape. This is partly attributed to the tendency of stem cell clusters to change shape over time and shrink. In order to determine the shape of the resulting tissue, the research team at TU Wien is now using laser-based precision 3D printing systems to create support structures for the stem cells.