Exhale
The official blog of the Lung Institute.
National Donate Life Month
Each April, the United States celebrates National Donate Life Month (NDLM). For one month, we think of the thousands of individuals patiently waiting for an organ that will change their life forever. Right now, there are nearly 124,000 people in the United States currently waiting for an organ transplant. But the organ donation stats are even more startling than that.
- More than 1,000 of the individuals waiting for an organ are under 10 years of age.
- On average, 150 people are added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list each day; that’s one every 10 minutes.
- Sadly, on average, 21 people die each day because the organs they need are not donated in time.
Seeing the sad reality that hundreds of people die each year due to a lack of an organ donor, researchers are looking for an alternative. Enter 3-D printing.
The new process of 3-D printing everything from toys to collectibles to nuts and bolts has taken a life-changing turn. Now, scientists are finding a far more complex and exciting possibility: 3-D printing human organs.
For years, medical researchers have been reproducing human cells to create blood vessels, skin tissue and other living body parts. Some revolutionary physicians at the Lung Institute are even using autologous cells to promote healing for sufferers of a variety of pulmonary conditions. Using the precise ability for 3-D printers to reproduce vascular systems is simply the next step on the journey to a healthier world.
Currently, the technology for printing whole human organs for surgical transplants is still years away. But there’s hope that 3-D printers could someday produce much-needed organs for transplants.
An Introduction to Bioprinting
An article from CNN, The next frontier in 3-D printing: Human organs, explains the basics of the emerging technologies:
“Bioprinting works like this: Scientists harvest human cells from biopsies or cells, then allow them to multiply in a petri dish. The resulting mixture, a sort of biological ink, is fed into a 3-D printer, which is programmed to arrange different cell types, along with other materials, into a precise three-dimensional shape. Doctors hope that when placed in the body, these 3-D-printed cells will integrate with existing tissues.”
So far, there have been several successes including a two-year old girl, born without a trachea, who received a windpipe built with her own cells. At the heart of emerging medical technologies reside cells.
For sufferers of a chronic lung disease, the many possibilities of cellular therapy are quite evident. Cellular therapy provides another option for sufferers to breathe easier. It harnesses the innate healing power of a patient’s own cells in order to help slow down the progression of the disease.
Today, lung disease can be treated with adult cells harvested from the patient’s own blood or bone marrow to replace damaged lung cells with healthy ones. This innovative procedure may slow the progression of the disease, but it also may improve lung function and may reduce inflammation.
For more information on how cellular therapy could help you, contact the Lung Institute at (800) 729-3065.
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