Scientists 'Print' World's First Heart With Human Bioinks, Next 'Teach Them To Behave' Like Hearts
Scientists
'Print' World's First Heart With Human Bioinks, Next 'Teach Them To Behave'
Like Hearts
Researchers
at Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel reported this
week that they have “printed” the world’s first 3D vascularized engineered
heart using a patient’s own cells and biological materials. Their findings were
published on April 15 in a study in Advanced Science.
Until now scientists in regenerative medicine have
been successful in printing only simple tissues without blood vessels. But in
what TAU researchers are calling "a major
breakthrough," they say they have engineered a heart that
“completely matches the cellular and anatomical properties of the patient,” and
soon hope to test the heart in animals.
“This is the first time anyone anywhere
has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells,
blood vessels, ventricles and chambers," said Prof. Tal Dvir of TAU's School of
Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Department of
Materials Science and Engineering, Center for
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Sagol Center for
Regenerative Biotechnology. “We are now investigating
the physiological behavior of the engineered tissues under controlled
conditions in the lab. If we will get positive results, we will move on to
transplantation experiments in animal models,”
Research for the study was
conducted by Dvir, Dr. Assaf Shapira of TAU’s Faculty of Life Sciences and Nadav
Moor, a doctoral student in Dvir’s lab.
But while the news is remarkable, Dvir said a
considerable amount of research has yet to be done, and researchers hope their
discovery will be just the tip of the iceberg in the capabilities of
regenerative medicine. “We hope that this development, together with inspiring,
elegant works that are being conducted by our colleagues worldwide, will
advance the field of regenerative medicine and take tissue engineering a step
forward," he said. "We hope to see more and more significant
breakthroughs in the near future. These will get us closer and closer to the
ultimate goal of clinical application and maybe one day we will get the
opportunity to replace injured or diseased organs with engineered ones.
However, we need to remember that this research is in its infancy and a great
deal of research and development (R&D) needs to be devoted.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), heart disease remains
the leading cause of death for both men and women, and about 610,000 people die
of heart disease in the United States every year. That’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
While heart transplantation
remains the only true “cure” for end-stage cardiac disease, there is a dire
shortage of heart donors. And since demand continues to far outpace the supply,
Dvir said, “the need to develop new approaches to regenerate the diseased heart
is urgent.”
So, though the newly printed heart is small—about a third the size of an actual
human heart—it’s an enormous step
in the right direction, Dvir said. “At this stage, our 3D heart is small, the
size of a rabbit’s heart,” he said. “But larger human hearts require the same
technology.”
The TAU researchers' heart is made from human cells and
patient-specific biological materials, Dvir said. “In our process these
materials serve as the bioinks, substances made of sugars and proteins that can
be used for 3D printing of complex tissue models,” he said. “People have
managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or
with blood vessels. Our results demonstrate the potential of our approach for
engineering personalized tissue and organ replacement in the future.”
Researchers used a biopsy of fatty tissue taken from patients for their study.
“The cellular and a-cellular materials of the tissue were then separated,” Dvir
explained. “While the cells were reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells,
the extracellular matrix (ECM), a three-dimensional network
of extracellular macromolecules, such as collagen and glycoproteins, were
processed into a personalized hydrogel that served as the printing ‘ink.’ After
being mixed with the hydrogel, the cells were efficiently differentiated to
cardiac or endothelial cells to create patient-specific, immune-compatible
cardiac patches with blood vessels and, subsequently, an entire heart.”
Dvir said the use of materials directly from the patient
is crucial to successfully engineering tissues and organs. “The
biocompatibility of engineered materials is crucial to eliminating the risk of
implant rejection, which jeopardizes the success of such treatments,” he said.
“Ideally, the biomaterial should possess the same biochemical, mechanical and
topographical properties of the patient’s own tissues. Here, we can report a
simple approach to 3D-printed thick, vascularized and perfusable cardiac
tissues that completely match the immunological, cellular, biochemical and
anatomical properties of the patient.”
The researchers are now planning on culturing the printed
hearts in the lab and “teaching them to behave” like hearts, Dvir said. But
there is much work to be done. Next, researchers plan to transplant the
3D-printed heart in animal models.
“We need to develop the printed heart further,” he said.
“The cells need to form a pumping ability; they can currently contract, but we
need them to work together. Our hope is that we will succeed and prove our
method’s efficacy and usefulness.”
Dvir said he can’t give an exact time when patients with
heart disease can expect to benefit from the printed heart, only that his
research should give them new hope. “Unfortunately, we cannot predict the time
that is needed in order to bring these developments to clinical application,”
he said. “It would also be irresponsible for us to do so. We hope that the
field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine will develop fast, but we
need to be patient as much work still needs to be done. Maybe, in ten years,
there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and
these procedures will be conducted routinely.”
American Friends
of Tel Aviv University supports Israel’s most influential,
comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv
University (TAU) which is ranked ninth in the world, and
first in Israel, for producing startup founders of billion-dollar. To date,
2,500 U.S. patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers — ranking
TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside the U.S. and #43 in the world.
Robin Seaton Jefferson lives just outside of St. Louis
with her husband of 25 years and two daughters. Find her on Twitter and
Facebook @SeatonJefferson or contact her at rsjreporter@charter.net.
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