Having been around for many centuries, prosthetics and artificial limbs have significantly made their mark in the medical industry, making an impact on millions of injured and disabled peoples’ lives. What if we were able to extend this technology to not just limbs, but to the internal parts of our bodies as well? Currently, there are 107, 000 Americans on the wait list for a lifesaving organ and around 17 people die per day waiting for an organ that they are not able to gain access to. Although they are not available to the mid majority of people just yet, artificial organs have the potential to completely transform the implant industry and make their impact in countless lives across the world.
Essentially, artificial organs are human-made organs that are put in place of natural organs and are implemented in bodies to replicate the functionality that a natural organ in that place would serve. From artificial kidneys to artificial hearts, new technology has allowed for nearly any sort of organ or organ-like structure to be produced.
New medical advances have allowed for the development of artificial organs through two main ways: growth and 3D printing.
1. 3D Bio-printing
The first, arguably more ethical, development of these organs is 3D printing, referred to as 3D Bio-printing in the medical industry, with the use of what is known as bio-ink, developed by University of British Colombia engineers. Bio-ink, which consists of biomaterials and living cells (for example, gelatin, hyaluronic acid, silk proteins, and elastin) is used by the bioprinter to construct 3D tissues and organ-like structures using a digital blueprint.
2. Stem Cells
The second, and more ethically controversial way, artificial organs are grown through stem cells, which are special human cells that have the possibility to develop into different types of other cells and serve their function. Engineering these stem cells to serve the function that you want them to depends on a lot of factors in which you grow them, including temperature, pH, hormones, and exposing them to the environment inside the body that they would experience as the organ they are being grown to function as.
“Engineered arteries need to experience pulses of pressure that simulate the blood that normally pumps through them. Engineered muscle needs to be stretched. Engineered lungs need to feel a regular flow of air. “Every cell has the right genetic information to create the organ. You just need to put them in the right environment,” says Atala.”Will we ever… grow synthetic organs in the lab?
Due to safety concerns and the fact that they haven’t been experimented with, in humans especially, to far extents, artificial organs are not available to a majority of those in need of organs for transplants. Integrating artificial organs in humans has been limited, although a few exceptions to that would include patients who have been unsuccessful in other forms of treatment or patients who are in near-death situations. Additionally, scientists have been further testing out this technology on animals and have been implanting organs in them.
If further testing and development were to go successfully in humans as they are with animals right now, we can expect to see the organ wait list drop substantially in a considerably short time-frame. Taking only around 5–7 weeks to make per organ, millions of patients around the world wouldn’t have to spend 3–5 years waiting desperately for an organ that they need in order to survive. Furthermore, the utilization of stem cells to develop different methods of treatment in various aspects of the medical field opens up a plethora of new opportunities for improved and enhanced healthcare.
