Kang Yujian, Chief Scientist of Sichuan Revotek, explains, “In five days, a new layer of endodermis will be formed, meanwhile, the smooth muscle cells will grow as well. And within 28 days, all these cells will go through tissue differentiation. That means the tissues we implanted will have mingled with the original ones and grown into a regular vessel. This is unprecedented.”
According to an April Bloomberg article, the health-care startup chose Chengdu as its home in 2014, partly due to the region’s abundant supply of available monkeys that were ideal for medical testing their human treatments, as well as drawing $33 million in funding from a local real estate company that was looking to diversify. Chengdu has several businesses that would benefit from a similar investment by the city; many Chinese provinces have created unique zones where new business ventures, especially technology startups and medical research firms, can seek funding opportunities, due to a country-wide campaign to encourage entrepreneurship.
“Printing a 3D blood vessel is quite remarkable, but what’s even more is to print a vessel that contains all sorts of bio-active substances,” said Dai Kerony, academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. “If we can apply this technology to blood vessels, then we can also use it on livers, kidneys and other organs. That’s how groundbreaking this technology is.”
It’s early days yet, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where a person suffering organ failure could be saved with this type of technology. If something as tiny and intricate as a blood vessel can be 3D printed, then possibly organs like kidneys and livers could be as well. Watch the video below to learn more about the process:
Discuss in the 3D Printed Blood Vessels forum at 3DPB.com.
[Source: CCTV, Sichuan Revotek Co. Ltd Facebook page, Bloomberg; Source/Images: Mirror]