Decentralized: 3D Organ Printing

By: Liam Murphy

Individuals who require an organ transplant will tell you: the process is timely, costly, and typically lifesaving. With over 4,351 people currently on the waitlist for organ transplants, in Canada alone, the need for intervention has never been more crucial. To assist those who are in dire need of a transplant, the Canadian government needs to invest in research opportunities which support the development of 3D printing of human organ transplants.  

While several provinces have taken measures to increase the number of organ donors, the need for organ transplants has continually surpassed current and future transplant projections. To complicate matters further, organ transplants are not always successful. Patients are often required to take a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs to ensure that their body does not reject the transplanted organ. If the medication is not taken regularly, amongst many other possible scenarios, the organ may be rejected by the recipient’s immune system and as a result render the transplant unfunctional. This often results in the recipient receiving a replacement organ, adding additional strain to the transplant waitlist.  Furthermore, on an annual basis, 1,600 Canadians are being added to the already backlogged transplant waitlist, with an average of 223 people dying waiting for a successful transplant.

In addition to increasing the number of possible organ donors, a possible solution to meet the demand of organ transplants is 3D printing. Currently, 3D printing is being used to create low-cost high-functioning prosthetics, patient-specific organ replicas for surgery preparation, and even surgical instruments (Figure 1). In addition, various research studies are currently using 3D printing technology to create organelles and there has been a lot of promising research to support the development of 3D printed organs. However, one common challenge that tissue engineers face, when producing human organs, is the process of vascularization. Scientists have continually struggled to create an intricate network of blood vessels that carry nutrients and oxygen deep into organs and carry waste products out.

With this being said, recently there has been a breakthrough in regenerative medicine technology that has allowed a team of researchers to develop tiny vessels in 3D printed organs. The process involves a 3D printing technique called projection stereolithography. During this process light is used to solidify light-sensitive resins layer by layer to create a 3D model. In order to make the resin sensitive enough to replicate small vascularised blood vessels the researchers used a common food dye to absorb blue light.

This technique was use in the creation of a 3D printed heart, made from human tissue, by researchers in Tel Aviv, Israel (Figure 2). The 3D heart was the size of a cherry and contained blood vessels, ventricles, and chambers. While small, the ability to develop a functioning organ is a promising sign for 3D printed organs being used for organ transplants in the near future.

Though the continued efforts of regenerative research scientists, the development of 3D printed organs would allow for transformation in the healthcare industry. For starters, those who are on the transplant waiting list could receive an 3D printed organ in a timely manner, drastically reducing the wait times that current patients are subject too. By reducing the wait times, families and patients can be reassured that a transplant organ can be successfully developed thereby reducing the risk of getting progressively sick and being admitted and readmitted to a hospital or even dying while on the waitlist for a transplant organ.

The production of 3D printed organs would also reduce the rejection rate from the recipients’ body. By using the patients own cells to create the 3D printed organ, the tissue would not be foreign to the recipient’s body and as a result the likelihood of the body rejecting the organ would be substantially reduced. By reducing the number of unsuccessful organ transplants, the time and resources required for a transplant surgery would be substantially reduced – as would the number of people on the transplant waitlist.

Another benefit of 3D organ printing is its ability to be mobile. In the future, as technology regarding 3D printing improves, regenerative medical experts will be able to produce 3D organs in a local setting. This would provide the opportunity for patients to have equitable access to safe high-quality tissues and become less dependent on the local supply of tissues, which might not meet the strict quality standards for transplant surgery. Furthermore, by being mobile, those living in rural areas, or areas affected by natural disasters, could receive care in a timely manner, which in some cases, can be life saving.

While organ transplant surgery, in Canada, is covered by the government, Ontario meets around 8% of provincial demand for potential tissues and pays about $19 million a year to purchase out-of-province tissues for the purposes of transplant surgery. Through the development of 3D printing, the costs associated with receiving an organ transplant would drastically be reduced in addition to the costs related to expensive medical treatments, that would otherwise be needed, such as dialysis, and repeated hospital admissions.

By decentralizing the approach to accessing organ transplants, the Canadian government would save millions of taxpayers’ money on an annual basis. It would also align with the governments current strategy of providing universal equitable healthcare to citizens located across the country by adding substantial value for the organ transplant patients. The healthcare industry in Canada is ripe for disruption, especially for organ transplants, where customization is necessary, and the inventory of finding and transplanting organs is costly.