Bio-Printing new life, one cell at a time

In the quiet corridors of hospitals across the world, a silent countdown echoes in the minds of countless patients awaiting organ transplants. Every tick of the clock is agonising as transplant lists continue to grow despite a widespread shortage of organ donors. However, at the forefront of medical innovation, bioprinting promises to transform this process as we know it, rendering donor lists a thing of the past. 

In 2023, at St Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, a patient in her 50s lost part of her trachea after life-saving surgery to treat thyroid cancer. Not only was this a risky and complicated surgery, but current treatments could not completely restore the organ to its previous state (Tae-il, 2024), deeming this loss an incurable disease. In a historic first, a multidisciplinary team of surgeons, ENT specialists and engineers successfully transplanted a 3D-bioprinted artificial trachea, fully customised to the patient in need. Scientists collected adult stem cells and cartilage cells, incorporated with a polymer called PCL to formulate a bio-ink that could then be used to construct the artificial organ.  

Despite fears over groundbreaking technology that had previously never been tested, six months on, the trachea showed signs of healing, alongside new blood vessel growth (Leach, 2024).  

But why have recent advances in this field suddenly started to gain ground? 

Organ donation has long been a critical issue in healthcare. Despite some advances in surgical technology and post-transplant care, the fundamental issue is simple; there are not enough donors. Supply of tissues and organs has long remained stagnant, despite continually increasing demands. This shortage has become a major problem faced by the medical world, as well as a huge social burden. 

Cultural and religious beliefs surrounding organ transplants are some of the key factors attributing to the limited pool of available organs. However, a knowledge gap within communities also persists, with studies indicating that an individual’s willingness to become a donor is heavily influenced by their level of awareness of the issue (Muthia et al., 2021). 

Even with an available organ donor, the challenges of successful transplantation exceed far beyond simply obtaining the organ. The size of the organ itself must be appropriate for the recipient’s body, to reduce risk of post-transplant complications. Furthermore, rejection of the organ remains a significant hurdle, where the body’s own immune system recognises the tissue as foreign, launching an attack. Despite the advent of modern immunosuppressive therapies, the NHS states that acute rejection still occurs in 10-20% of kidney transplants nationally. If donor blood is also not a direct match, hyperacute rejection occurs, with the organ ceasing to function within minutes of transplantation.  

This is further worsened by social inequalities, with a report conducted by MPs in 2023 concluding that NHS “inaction” for more than a decade is causing unnecessary deaths for patients from BAME backgrounds. Just 10.2% of organ donors were found to be from these ethnic minorities (Bawden and Thomas, 2023), jeopardising the lives of those who require donors of a similar ethnic background to improve chances of success. Therefore, the perfect organ match is as elusive as a needle in a haystack. 

Amid these challenges, 3D-bioprinting emerges as a potential solution. Complex structures are created using layers of living cells, biomaterials, and growth factors, precisely engineered to form functional tissues and organs. The potential for this technology to address the organ donor crisis is immense, as it could enable custom organs to be tailored to individual patients, perfect in both size and immunocompatibility. Because a patient’s own cells are incorporated, disparities across various communities play no role in determining a successful outcome, resulting in a more universal solution. 

Recent advancements in this field have brought us as close as ever to this reality. A viable vascular system is an essential component of any artificial organ, ensuring adequate flow of oxygen and nutrients. At the forefront of this research, The Wyss Institute successfully 3D-printed vasculature resulting in a lab model that showed promising bone development. Make no mistake however, developments in this field are still crucial in the near future, with Wyss founding director, Donald Ingber stating, “To say that engineering functional living human tissues in the lab is difficult is an understatement.” 

However, once a concrete system is in place, studies in the US have shown that professional-grade 3D-bioprinters could be implemented into hospitals nationally at the cost of $25,000 each, almost 18 times less than the cost of transplanting a single kidney before insurance kicks in (Becher, 2024). Taking stress off an already overburdened organ donation system is a monumental step in tackling donor lists and global healthcare crises. 

In an ever turbulent medical landscape, advances in bioprinting don’t just represent a technological triumph, but a pivotal shift in how we approach healthcare in the future. What may have once been deemed science fiction is now becoming a tangible reality, with custom printed artificial tissue and organs providing life-saving solutions to many. It’s a future where hope is no longer a needle in a haystack, but a promise that we can deliver.