3D printing is n’t just for fashioningnew toucan beaksormaking toolson Mars – it could someday salve you from sightlessness .
For the very first time , scientists from Newcastle University in the UK have 3D printed human cornea , the cleared forbidden layer of the eye that plays a vast role in control and focusing the entryway of luminance into the optic .
Over 5 million people abide from total blindness due to Robert Burns , damage , or disease of their corneas , with a further 10 million people waiting for surgery to forestall corneal blindness . People can donate their corneas after they pass away , however , the demand currently outweigh the provision .
As documented in the journalExperimental Eye Research , the team used a low - cost 3D printer to craft these artificial cornea . It prints out layers of “ bio - ink ” , building them up in concentric circles , to imprint a cornea - shaped staging . Stem cell are then summate and left to grow to create a cornea quick for transplantation .
Do n’t concern , the finished product is quartz glass clear , not colored blueing like the cornea in the photograph above , which was dyed to make it easy to see .
" Many team across the world have been chasing the ideal bio - ink to make this process feasible , " lead author Che Connon , Professor of Tissue Engineering at Newcastle University , said in astatement .
" Our singular gelatin – a compounding of alginate and collagen – keep the stem mobile phone alive whilst producing a material which is stiff enough to hold its pattern but piano enough to be extort out the beak of a 3D printer .
" This builds upon our previous study in which we keep on cells alive for weeks at room temperature within a similar hydrogel . Now we have a ready to use bio - ink curb root word cell allowing drug user to start printing tissue without having to interest about growing the cells separately . "
Corneas have no rip watercraft , unlike most physical structure tissues , making the cognitive operation of transplantation ever so slightly well-situated .
To gauge the correct configuration and dimension of the printed eye part , the investigator first scanned the patient ’s eye . They say this method acting will allow them to create custom - made cornea transplants to suit the patient ’s pauperism .
Professor Connon bestow : " Our three-D - printed corneas will now have to undergo further testing and it will be several years before we could be in the position where we are using them for transplants .
" However , what we have shown is that it is feasible to impress corneas using coordinates aim from a patient eye and that this approach has potential drop to combat the human race - wide shortage . "
