Soluble, light-reacting 3D printing particles could create replacement body parts

Water-based 3D printing with a “novel” new nanoparticle could create replacement body parts including joints and heart valves, researchers have said.

A team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology developed a new type of photoinitiator, a particle which reacts and changes when exposed to light. The nanoparticles could create bio-compatible 3D printed structures as well as biomedical accessories, the researchers said.

3D printing is already an important tool for making different organic-based materials for a variety of industries. However, the team said printing structures in water – an environmentally-friendly technique which reduces the amount of material needed – has been limited by a lack of water soluble photoiniator materials.

The university team, led by professors Uri Banin and Shlomo Magdassi, created “semiconductor-metal hybrid nanoparticles”. When exposed to visible light, the team’s “novel” nanoparticles start chemical reactions in the liquid and solidify into structures.

The technique “opens exciting opportunities in the biomedical arena for tailored fabrication of medical devices and for printing scaffolds for tissue engineering”, the researchers said. They claimed it could help create personalised joint replacements, bone plates, heart valves, artificial tendons, ligaments and other artificial organ replacements.

The technology holds a lot of promise for the future, said Magdassi to Professional Engineering. "Printing biological organs is only at the beginning," he said. "People are trying to print organs over structures which contain cells, people are trying to create bone replacements. So I think it is only a question of time… people are making huge steps towards making organs but there are a lot of limitations, and 3D printing will enable an additional tool."

Other university departments and companies are also working to create 3D printed replacement body parts. In March, researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden announced they successfully grew human cartilage cells in animals using 3D bioprinting.

Similar techniques are also aiding healthcare in different ways. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Piedmont Heart Institute recently created 3D printed models of patients’ hearts to help optimise prosthetic valve replacements.

The new research paper was published in Nano Letters.