Scientists Can Now 3D Print Tissues Directly Inside the Body—No Surgery Needed

This month, a team from the California Institute of Technology unveiled a system to 3D print tissues inside the body—no surgery needed. Dubbed deep tissue in vivo sound printing (DISP), the system uses an injectable bioink that’s liquid at body temperature but solidifies into structures when blasted with ultrasound. A monitoring molecule, also sensitive to ultrasound, tracks tissue printing in real time. Excess bioink is safely broken down by the body.

The ink is injected to the target site or shuttled there using catheters. To test the approach, the team 3D printed shapes—stars, pinwheels, teardrops, and lattices—in a variety of tissues, such as thick pork chops and chicken.

In mice with bladder cancer, the team 3D printed a kind of depot that slowly released anticancer drugs to stave off cancer growth. Today’s bladder cancer drugs are often flushed away within hours. A bioink patch would concentrate the drugs at the tumor for longer.

In another test, the researchers printed artificial tissue inches below the skin in rabbits’ leg muscles and bellies, showcasing the technology’s ability to restructure tissues in larger animals.

Okay, this is *really* amazing and awesome news! The possibilities are endless!

So this means you can get Arnold’s body without lifting? The future of body sculpting?

How big is the reported tissue failure/rejection rate?