3D BioPrinter Prints Human Cartilage

Dr. Darryl D'Lima and his colleagues at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, have made some pretty remarkable progress in the printing of cartilage.

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D'Lima, and his colleagues have adapted an HP inkjet printer to print out cells which form pieces of human cartilage. The team is looking to figure out a way to fix knee injuries in a natural way, which will not require additional surgeries, or foreign bodies. They hope to have this technology ready for actual use in the next few years, as knee surgeries, involving the lack of cartilage, are increasing as the baby boomer population ages, and obesity rates rise. The market for knee replacements will rise from $6.9 billion today to over $11 billion by 2017.

This technology will soon be able to print directly to a joint, researchers hope, meaning , a much closer fit, less pain, and a much higher likelihood of not having to go back into the knee later on.

“It would be the equivalent of filling a pothole,” he said. “It would automatically fill the defect as you’re printing it. You’re getting a fairly good mechanical integration into the tissue, which is very difficult for us to do when we do traditional transplants," said D’Lima

Cartilage is actually easier to print than other human tissue because there is no need for blood vessels.