3D Bioprinting has led to the first 3D printed organs in the past years. Bladders or tracheal splints have already been transplanted and techniques for 3D organ printing might soon lead to a variety of different organs. But how does 3D bioprinting work? And can we already commercially 3D print organs for transplantation?

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00:00-1:20 Intro
1:20-6:56 How can we Print Organs?
6:56-8:59 Challenges in Bioprinting
8:59-10:10 Organs Already Printed

Three dimensional or 3D bioprinting describes techniques through which try to build tissues or organs. We do that by using a bioprinter which applies cells layer by layer until we have a made a whole structure. 3D bioprinting contains three fundamental steps: design, bioprinting and postprocessing.
The first step is to know how our heart should look like.Here we use magnetic resonance imaging to generate a 3D model of our organ. Then, we use a bioprinter and bioink to print the organ. There are inject based, laser based and extrusion based printers. The second thing we need is bioink. Bioinks consist of custom formulations of biomaterials, additives, growth factors, hormones and cells.
In order to obtain the different cells we need to 3D print an organ, we need to cultivate pluripotent stem cells. Of course, we do not want to use embryonic stem cells but instead create induced pluripotent stem cells by adding the Yamanaka factors to fibroblasts. The induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can then be converted into different cell types which can be used for the bioprinting process. In the end, we also need to let the cells become mature and control the safety of the 3D printed organ.
There are several issues which we have to address before we can 3D print full-fetched organs by bioprinting. We need to develop a new bioprinter which is fast and precise, while improving cell viability and decrease the workload. Although it is challenging some progresses have been made in 3D bioprinting. Skin grafts, bladders and a tiny heart have already been printed. A tracheal splint has also been bioprinted for transplantation.

For your research:
Murphy, Sean V., and Anthony Atala. "3D bioprinting of tissues and organs." Nature biotechnology 32, no. 8 (2014): 773-785.
Kwon, Seong Gyu, Yang Woo Kwon, Tae Wook Lee, Gyu Tae Park, and Jae Ho Kim. "Recent advances in stem cell therapeutics and tissue engineering strategies." Biomaterials research 22, no. 1 (2018): 1-8.
Correia Carreira, S., Begum, R., & Perriman, A. W. (2019). 3D Bioprinting: The Emergence of Programmable Biodesign. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 1900554. doi:10.1002/adhm.201900554

Images:
Some pictures were derived from Servier Medical Art by Servier. You can find over 3000 free medical images here: https://smart.servier.com/
Hamlet by Folger Shakespeare Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Spine by Julia Jultz, CC BY-SA 2.0
Anthony Atala by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0
Heart Beat by Alith3204, CC BY-SA 4.0
Caffeine by Mstroeck, CC BY-SA 3.0
3D Printed Heart, CNN

Music:
Intro:
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About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.