“Bone 3D Ink” injected into the body to repair bone tissue

“Bone 3D Ink” injected into the body to repair bone tissue.   Australian experts invented “Bone 3D Ink”, which can be directly injected into the body to repair bone tissue.

According to a report on the Medicalxpress website, “Advanced Functional Materials” magazine introduced a “bone three-dimensional ink.” It is made of living cells and special three-dimensional printing materials, which can be injected into the body to repair damaged bone tissue through three-dimensional printing.

According to Professor Iman Roohani from the School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, bones can be destroyed by trauma, cancer or other reasons. The research group invented a special ink with calcium phosphate as a matrix. After it was made into a cell suspension with living cells, it could be three-dimensionally printed on the damaged bone to form a corresponding bone-like structure. After the ink comes into contact with the water in the body, it will initiate the hardening mechanism and transform it into firm apatite nanocrystals. The process takes only a few minutes, and finally achieves the purpose of repairing and filling bone damage.

Roohani introduced that bone 3D printing technology has been widely used clinically. However, in traditional bone printing, we need to use some toxic chemicals and high-temperature environments in the laboratory to create a three-dimensional structure, clean it and put it into the body to achieve the purpose of repair. This three-dimensional ink technology is very convenient. It can be directly injected into the corresponding defect position in the body, such as reaching the inside of the bone through a hole in the bone, and printing a corresponding bone-like structure.

The breakthrough of this technology is that living cells can be used to create the corresponding bone structure at room temperature, and the operation is simple, fast and non-toxic. It can harden within a few minutes after contact with body fluids, saving a lot of time for surgery. At present, there are already doctors and medical companies interested in this.

Roohani said that the three-dimensional bone ink opens up a new way for the treatment and repair of bone tissue. We can use this special ink to create bones for disease modeling, make tooth restoration materials, and help patients with bone or osteochondral damage to reconstruct. One day in the future, when we treat a patient who needs bone transplantation, we will be able to do three-dimensional imaging of his bone anatomy, correspondingly inject his own cells and three-dimensional ink into the cavity to form bones, reduce pain, and ultimately save life.

In the next work, the researchers will use animal models to test to see if the living cells implanted in the bone can grow normally.

(source:internet, reference only)

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