Oct. 14, 2014 | By Alec
Image: Wikipedia
Most people in the 3D printing community will have heard about the many and exciting new medical applications of 3D printing technology that have been implemented recently. Heard about the curious case of the Chinese man who had part of his skull repaired with a 3D printed mesh?
But now a team of Australian scientists from the University of Sydney are taking 3D printing to a whole new level of medical usefulness. For the past few years this team, led by professor Hala Zreiqat, have been working on a 3D printed substitute for bones, whose exact characteristics have so far been impossible to reproduce synthetically.
Bone is hard to replicate. As she explained at a recent TEDx in Sydney, bone has several unique properties: 'It's highly porous from the inside, but the outside is quite firm, so your skeleton is actually very strong, very light and very porous at the same time. So how can you make a synthetic material that is very porous, to allow for blood and cells to go through it, but also mechanically strong?'
This has been a dilemma faced every synthetic material in the market. While metal implants and small quantities of synthetic material have been used to mimic bone structure, none of these are capable of replacing large sections of bone. As professor Zreiqat said, 'if you have a defect in your leg, and you put a material in there, it will actually crush because it's so brittle. So we decided to look at the bone and ask 'what can we learn from our skeleton?''
But a recent announcement in Shanghai could change all that, as they revealed to have succeeded in developing a printable material that is a hundred times stronger than current synthetic materials used to copy bone structures. The Australian researchers, in a collaborative effort with Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, can now print a material that can recreate the exact skeletal structure of any patient.
By studying from the properties of the skeleton, such as collagen and calcium, Professor Zreiqat and her research team have developed a new ceramic material that copies all the structural and functional aspects of human bones. Its strength and porosity are very similar to natural bone. This means it is strong enough to withstand the pressure of use, but porous enough to allow blood and cells to pass through it. In addition, it will even be capable of encouraging the regeneration of new bone cells in the correct position. Because the ceramic is bioactive and contains seed cells, the ceramic resembling natural bone can eventually be replaced by natural bone in the body.
The fact that it aids and encourages bone regeneration makes it a particularly interesting material that is far superior to other synthetics currently used. Moreover, professor Zreiqat said that 'our tests also show that it will not be rejected by the body. In addition, we can make as many implants as we want from this material, so availability will not be a problem.'
This synthetic material, with all its unique properties, is produced using 3D printing technology. It enables researchers to develop a 3D scaffold with the correct shape and size needed for implanting.
Professor Zreiqat and her team is currently working on experiments for maxillofacial regeneration, which is very difficult to regenerate compared to the repairing of smaller defects. This bone-like material will really have the potential to positively affect the quality of life of millions of people. At a recent Tissue Engineering Symposium, professor Zreiqat expressed the hope of seeing 'it in use clinically within the next 10 years.'
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Here is the paper: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep19468
Davo, Hyrel 3D wrote at 10/14/2014 11:44:46 PM:
FYI, this was done with one of the first Hyrel 3D Engines that we shipped. http://hyrel3d.com
Printing Partner wrote at 10/14/2014 3:24:20 PM:
cant stop feeling excited when reading such stories, 3d printing at its best! 3dprintingpartner
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