In surgeries there is a need of custom shaped cartilage. Technological leap now offers a simpler way to deliver cartilage for the surgeries. Now researchers have find a way to shape and build the cartilage which is used in surgical procedures. And these cartilages are made by 3-D bio printing. 3D bio printing has been used vastly for many purposes. The discovery aims to make things easier for surgeons in order to safely restore some of the features. Surgeons find it really handy to safely restore the features of skin cancer patients who live with nasal cartilage defects post-surgery. This was discovered by the team of researchers of university of Alberta. The technique used in this process is unique where the researchers successfully used a specially designed material similar to Jell O that could be mixed with particular kind of cells harvested from a patient. Later, it is printed in a very specific shape which is being captured through a very advance process called, 3D imaging.
This material was frequently experimented in lab to make it entirely functional cartilage. If we follow the natural process then it will take lifetime to make a cartilage while this method is time saving as it can be prepared within a month or a week as well. Though, the making of cartilage still needs some more degree of maturity, especially when it is going to be implanted in a human body.
“But functionally it's able to do the things that cartilage does," said Adetola Adesida, a professor of surgery in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. It has to have certain mechanical properties and it has to have strength. This meets those requirements with a material that (at the outset) is 92 per cent water," added Yaman Boluk, a professor in the Faculty of Engineering. Adesida, Boluk and graduate student Xiaoyi Lan led the project to create the 3-D printed cartilage in hopes of providing a better solution for a clinical problem facing many patients with skin cancer.
