Researchers from the University of Tel Aviv, in Israel, were able to use a 3D printer to make a live heart, using tissue taken from a human being. The prototype, presented on April 15th, was the size of a cherry (close to 3 centimetres) and was made from a patient’s own cells.

According to professor Tal Dvir, the head of research, “people have managed to 3Dprint the structure of a heart,” but “this is the first time that anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers” – ventricles and chambers are parts of the heart that receive and pump blood throughout the human body.

The breakthrough is an important step for future organ transplants that are faster and have less chance of rejection (when the body does not react well to the donated organ), because the procedure is done using the patient’s own cells.

One of the next challenges, according to professor Tal Dvir, is to develop a larger heart. He also said that we need to discover how to create enough cells to make a human heart.

Sources: CNN, El Pais, Estadão, G1, Galileu magazine, Drauzio Varella’s website, and UOL

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