3D Printed Eye Cells May Cure Blindness

[Eddie]

Another great story of how 3D Printing is revolutionizing medicine. Wouldn't it be amazing to see 3D Printing cure blindness in people that have never seen before?

3D-printed eye cells could "aid in the cure of blindness" according to researchers at The University of Cambridge, who have successfully printed adult nerve cells for the first time.
The researchers used an inkjet printer to print living retinal cells of adult rats, which could be built up and used to create replacements for defective eye tissues.
"This is the first time that cells from the adult central nervous system have been successfully printed," professor Keith Martin told Dezeen. "We've demonstrated that you can take cells from the retina and you can effectively separate them out. These can be put in an inkjet printer and we can print those cells out in any pattern we like and we've shown that those cells can survive and thrive."
Martin and his colleagues at Cambridge's neuroscience department, Wen-Kai Haiso and Barbara Lorber, published their findings in research journal Biofabrication yesterday.
"[This] is an important step in the development of tissue grafts for regenerative medicine and may aid in the cure of blindness," said the article.
Martin hopes the development is a step towards treating retinal diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, the two biggest causes of blindness in the UK.
Inkjet printer ejecting living retinal cellsTheir study is the first to show that retinal ganglion cells, which transmit signals from the eye to the brain, and glial cells that support this process can be printed in layers on top of each other without damaging them.
"The retina is a multi-layered structure," said Martin. "We've shown that we can put down at least two layers so we can put down glial cells and 3D print retinal ganglion cells over the top."
The team found that the cells weren't distorted when fired out of the printer at high speed, counter to predictions.
"Effectively you can fire these cells at about 30 miles per hour and they survive that perfectly well," said Martin. "[This] was a real surprise to us because we didn't expect the cells to be able to survive being fired out of a cannon."
Having successfully printed a layer of nerve cells and a layer of support cells, Martin says that the next step will be to print multiple layers to build up a full retina.
"What we're looking to do now is to develop this towards ways of repairing the retina," he told us. "With time there's no reason why you can't print multiple different cell types in the same way that you print multiple different colours of ink. Building up 3D structures is the next step."

Entire article at:
http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/18/3d-...ure-blindness/

[aWsomeABE]

I'm guessing we are at least a good decade away from seeing 3D Printing cure Blindness, but I'll be keeping a close eye on this (no pun intended). Things like these really help promote how great 3D Printing can be.