To speak of three dimensions or 3D almost always refers us to the cinema and the glasses invented with red and blue cellophane; the image coming out of the screen or the incredible sensation of being inside of it.
And, without doubt, this technology has gained popularity and acceptance in recent decades, especially in video games, film and advertising.
However, its use extends to other areas such as medicine with innovative 3D organ printing.
Although previously the technique was used to create small parts of the human body such as teeth, advances allow to apply them in more complex organs.
The practice is carried out at the University of Rochester, in the north of New York, where the Model of Inanimate Simulation for the Learning of Physical Experiences is developed, which has perfected this type of creations.
One of his last inventions was the incorporation of artificial blood to the created organ; which gives it better texture and a surprising realism for sight and touch.
Dr. Ahmed Ghazie, part of this group, explains that the objective of the organs is to study the complicated structures and practice the surgical intervention before facing real operations.
The fact of providing blood, he adds, is essential for the training of future doctors because the bleeding is a sign of a certain or wrong cut. 'This is a great help to develop the memory faster, bring students and surgeons to experience with a real patient, avoid errors and complications in practice. So you can try new methods of surgery to generate the least blood loss or simply improve those already used, "says Gazhie.
A STEP BEYOND: THE IMPLANT
So much acceptance has the practice that some already speak of organs to be used in transplants.
A team of experts from the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine in California, also in the United States, outlines a new system capable of achieving this purpose.
Anthony Atala, leader of the group, assures that the problem lies in making sure that the synthetic organ to be implanted has enough time to vascularize in a person's organism.
According to previous research, the cells are kept alive while they are in the bioreactor, but when they pass to the organ they tend to die because they lack nutrition.
To overcome the obstacle, they created a printing technology based on a system of microchannels where the cells to be used are installed. This ensures the permeability of nutrients and oxygen.
To achieve the nutrition of the cells, the analysts created an ink with abundant water and created the plane of the microchannels to maintain the permeability.
The practice was carried out in mice, to whom reconstructed ears were implanted from human cells and different types of materials printed in 3D. Two months later, the organ survived and showed important signs of vascularization.