California Research Team Prints Cartilage with an Inkjet Printer (ODT Magazine)
While companies such as ISTO Technologies and Integra LifeSciences work on growing viable, implantable human cartilage, Darryl D’Lima, M.D., Ph.D., has managed to print cartilage from nothing less than an old inkjet printer. The doctor, who heads the orthopedic research laboratory at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, Calif., was profiled in the New York Times on Aug. 18 for his groundbreaking work.
D’Lima has succeeded in creating bioartificial cow cartilage by modifying an old inkjet printer to put down layer upon layer of a gel that contains mesenchymal, or progenitor, stem cells. He has also printed cartilage in tissue removed from patients who have undergone knee replacement surgery.
Mainstream media has been abuzz with interest in 3-D printers in recent months, especially after the Cube 3-D printer became commercially available through the office supply store Staples. Similarly, there has been a rise in interest in the medical space for 3-D printing. The technique is often used by contract manufacturers to make complex devices by laying down layers of raw material; however, there is to date no such mach...
