Researcher Darryl D'Lima of Scripps Clinic with his "bioprinter" adapted from an HP inkjet printer that can produce cartilage.

Putting a slurry of cardiac cells into a 3D printer and making a functional human heart remains well in the realm of science fiction. But at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Dr. Darryl DLima and colleagues say theyve pretty much figured out the process of bioprinting a humbler but still necessary tissue, cartilage.

A physician who holds a doctorate in bioengineering from UC San Diego, DLima has designed a prototype bioprinter that makes living cartilage. The bioprinter, adapted from an old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, sprays out a mixture of cartilage progenitor cells and a liquid that congeals under ultraviolet light. It also bioprints bone cells, to be deposited where cartilage attaches to bone.

DLimas goal is to turn this technology into a true fix for knee injuries associated with cartilage damage or injuries. The tough and slippery tissue that cushions joints, cartilage doesnt regenerate well. As those with arthritis or a knee injury will attest, the lack of cartilage allows bone to grind on bone, causing excruciating pain.

The best medical technology can do now is to install artificial knee joints, a painful procedure that is not necessarily permanent. Even so, theres a multibillion-dollar market for knee replacements. And thanks to aging baby boomers and obesity, that market is projected to grow. The global knee replacement market brought in $6.9 billion in 2010, and is projected to reach nearly $11 billion by 2017.

DLima says several more years of work will be needed before his idea can be tried in people, but the main scientific challenges have been solved. Whats left is engineering. Instead of printing cartilage in a laboratory, DLima wants to print it directly into patients in the operating room.

Printing into the knee joint ensures a much closer fit between the new cartilage and existing cartilage than by attaching lab-grown cartilage that must be cut to fit, DLima said.

The cell-containing droplets are on the order of one picoliter, or one-billionth of a liter. Thats small enough to fill microscopic irregularities in the patients cartilage or bone.

It would be the equivalent of filling a pothole, he said. It would automatically fill the defect as youre printing it. Youre getting a fairly good mechanical integration into the tissue, which is very difficult for us to do when we do traditional transplants.

Another advantage would be that surgery could be done as needed.

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Bioprinting cartilage into people is doctor's goal

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