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  • 3D-printed human heart tissue is no longer the stuff of dreams.

  • A team of Korean researchers has developed a 3D-printed stem cell patch that could change

  • the way doctors perform heart surgeries.

  • Kim Hyesung sheds light on the breakthrough.

  • Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.

  • The World Health Organization says over 8 million people died from coronary artery disease in 2015 alone.

  • Fewer than half of patients who suffer a heart attack after receiving a heart surgery end

  • up living longer than five years,... due to the difficulty of regenerating damaged heart tissue.

  • But a new finding could provide a solution.

  • Korean researchers have developed a 3D printed stem cell patch that can enhance cardiac repair

  • by generating new blood vessels and tissues when attached to the heart.

  • Scientists at the Pohang University of Science and Technology, or POSTECH, harvested myocardial

  • and vascular stem cells, which they then combined with what they call biological ink, a gel

  • made from a decellularized pig's heart.

  • "It's crucial to extract the extracellular matrix, leaving elements like protein but

  • removing other pig cells to prevent it from causing disruption in the transplanted species' immune system."

  • The bioink mixture facilliates the fabrication of 3D-shaped structures by placing the incubated

  • stem cells in dual-cell arrangements.

  • After publishing the bioink concept in the journal Nature in 2014, the POSTECH research

  • team, with the help of Seoul Saint Mary's Hospital, successfully tested the technique

  • on a mouse with myocardial disease.

  • The 3-D printed patch integrated well with the mouse's existing tissue.

  • It reduced the hardness of certain fibrotic areas affected by a lack of blood supply and

  • created new blood vessels, helping its heart pump again.

  • "I've conducted bioengeneering research for over two decades and this is a very encouraging result.

  • Only one in ten patients can receive an organ implant, but 3D printing using our bioink

  • shows that printed organs can be transplanted to an animal,... opening the possibility of

  • transplanting the tissue in humans."

  • Having proved that the 3D printed stem cell patch works, the team's next goal is to see

  • if there are any side effects... to test whether it's safe to use in the long term.

  • Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.

3D-printed human heart tissue is no longer the stuff of dreams.

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