After Wu Hao finished speaking, everyone present nodded in approval. The difficulty of 3D printing technology still lies in printing. How to print precise organs and tissues is the biggest problem facing all scientific researchers.
If you want to print precise organs and tissues, you must have a very complete understanding of the organs and tissues. Only by understanding the composition of the organs and tissues, down to the rehearsal combination of each cell, can the printed organs and tissues remain active and can be used in
It survives in the patient's body and perfectly replaces the functions of the original organs and tissues.
If you want to understand the rehearsal and combination composition of each cell in an organ tissue, you need to conduct a fully detailed study of human organs. Although there are some mature research materials in the world, it is obvious that such work must be as detailed as the order of cell arrangement and combination.
No one has been able to achieve this yet. Therefore, the most important task before Wu Hao and others is to have detailed and precise digital model data of each organ. Only by building such a detailed digital model of organs can biological 3D printing be realized.
.
This is just like an ordinary 3D printer that needs to create a 3D model to be printed on the computer before printing an object. Only after importing the 3D model data can the 3D printer print out the corresponding model.
The principle of biological 3D printers is the same, but it is much more complicated than ordinary 3D printers, and the difficulty will also increase geometrically.
First of all, the models printed by ordinary 3D printers are actually solved and decomposed. The interior generally has a honeycomb or hollow structure, and only the outer shell part is retained. The advantage of this is that it greatly reduces the use of consumables and saves costs. Secondly, what about
, because there are fewer cross-sections to print, the printing speed will also increase a lot.
Although the printing time of this kind of 3D printer is very slow, if the hollow part is filled, the printing time will be increased several times.
Secondly, 3D printers, whether they are ordinary additive 3D printers or light-curing 3D printers, all have printing accuracy data. Limited by the hardware and software levels of the 3D printer, the printing accuracy of the 3D printer also varies.
It’s not the same. Good printers have excellent hardware and software, so the printing accuracy naturally goes up. In order to save money, cheap printers reduce the quality of hardware and software, so the printing accuracy is not that high. This is also reflected in the printed results.
In terms of object fineness, the surface of objects printed by a good 3D printer is smooth and delicate. However, the surface of objects printed by a low-quality 3D printer will be very rough, and even show a spiral texture of annual rings. This is additive technology.
Print traces.
Secondly, printing accuracy is also related to printing time. The higher the printing accuracy of a 3D printer, the longer it will take. On the contrary, the lower the printing accuracy, the faster it will take.
On biological 3D printers, these problems need to be solved one by one. First of all, the printed organs and tissues must be printed in strict accordance with the precise digital organ model data, without any deviation. This requires that the entire biological 3D printer must
It has high enough precision to print micron-level cells.
Secondly, what is printed must be one-to-one solid organ tissue. It cannot just print out an empty shell like an ordinary 3D printer. This is definitely not possible.
Then there is the printing time, which is very critical when printing organs and tissues with a biological 3D printer. It is necessary to ensure sufficient printing accuracy while also ensuring a fast printing speed.
You must know that the cells in the human body are not static, but are changing all the time. Cells are constantly aging and dying while being constantly renewed and regenerated. The life span of cells varies. The life span of intestinal mucosal cells is 3 days, and the life span of liver cells is 150 days.
, the life span of taste bud cells is 10 days, the life span of nail cells is 6 to 10 months, and the life span of nerve cells in the brain, bone marrow, and eyes is several decades, which is almost the same as the life span of the human body, and the white blood cells in the blood have
Only a few hours to live.
These cells are alternately renewing metabolism to achieve the replacement of organ tissue cells, which requires that the entire printing time must be rapid. It cannot take too long just to ensure accuracy. If the printing time is too long, then print out
The organs and tissues will lose their activity and turn into dead flesh, without any medical value.
Therefore, in biological 3D printing, time is also one of the important problems that researchers must overcome.
The last and most difficult technology is how to ensure the activity of printed organs. Even with fast printing, it takes dozens or hundreds of hours to print a complete organ tissue. How to ensure the activity of printed organs and tissues? This is this
One of the most critical issues in technology.
If this problem cannot be solved, the entire project will fail, and what will be printed will be a piece of dead flesh without any medical value.
Not only must the printing process and the printed organs and tissues remain active, but the consumables required for printing must also be ensured, that is, the activity of the cells. Only living cells can print living organs and tissues. If the cells are dead, print them out.
It's definitely a piece of dead meat.
This technology is very difficult to ensure that all cells must be healthy and viable. If there are more necrotic cells among them, it will also affect the quality of the final printed organ tissue, and even the survival rate and functional integrity.
Moreover, these cells also need to go through the printing process. How to ensure the survival rate of these cells is also an important problem facing scientific researchers.
In fact, the problems in this technology are far from just these few, there are many, many more. Even some problems that are not usually important may become the key to getting stuck in this aspect.
Another example is that there are different types of organs and tissues, and different tissue structures. Although they are all composed of cells, the shapes of cells and the arrangement and combination of cells are also very different. Different arrangements and combinations present different
Organizations are also different.
For example, how to print the very important blood vessel network in organ tissues, how to print the grease part, how to print the cartilage part, etc.
Therefore, this biological 3D printer may not only be able to print with one printing nozzle, but may also use multiple nozzles to alternately print. And it is impossible to just try one kind of consumables (cells), and may need to prepare several consumables (consumables).
, Only in this way can the printing needs of different structural parts in organs and tissues be met.
In this way, high-precision imitation printing of these human organs and tissues can be achieved, so that healthy printed organ tissues that meet medical transplant standards can be transplanted into the patients who need them to extend the patient's life.