The Human Heart
Definition: A vital organ within the human body, which uses muscles to pump blood to all body parts.
3D Printing The Human Heart. 3D printing vital organs has been a relatively new development within the field of life-saving medical practices. The world's first 3D-print heart was made with human cells from Tel Aviv University’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology by the head of research Tal Dvir. However, it didn’t beat and was too small for human use. I know disappointing. BUT!, This shows progression, because if humans can make a 3D-printed heart on a smaller scale, it can definitely be upscaled and beating properly…one day. But what have the brilliant minds of the current world researchers, scientists, and engineers come up with now?
But work isn’t done
Although the field of 3D-prinited organs is relatively new and there has been many failed trials and few such success trials across all types of artificial organs, there are still issues that need to be discussed and considered.
These are some of the questions that need to be considered through the developmental process by both developers and patients:
Is the 3D-printed organs considered property? And if so, who will officially own the organ? The patient? Physician? Hospital? Manufacturer?
How much would this cost for the patient?
Will the insurance policy cover this?
How long does the implant last before issues arise?
Are there side effects of this?
How will the physicians be protected if anything unexpected happens throughout this new process?
Will this technology be available for everyone?
These are only a few questions that should be always considered through this process. The ethical and judicial laws must be applied through this developmental process and the individual cases after the first round of development is over. Medicine is never ending and there will always be more to explore, so never forget that the work is still not done.
What is going on now?
Some of the fascinating research coming from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences stated that there are developments in hydrogel ink which is infused with gelatin fibers. This sounds like a lot, I get it. So let's break it down.
Hydrogel Ink: Developed with natural polymer materials given the biocompatibility and artificial polymers for 3D-printing material.
Gelatin fibers : Developed from strands of gelatin coming from collagen which can be used to create structures, typically in biomedical applications.
Perfect, definitions down, let's continue. These two combinations allow the 3D-printing of certain functional heart ventricles. They continued to state that this infused 3D-printing ink may allow for the heart muscles to take the shape of the ventricle and align with the heart chamber.
Additionally, there are other reasons why researchers and professionals are creating a 3D-printed heart. Some purposes are not for direct human use but for educational training purposes. Researchers are NTU have stated that models and dummies “aren’t enough” to teach surgeons and other educational environments and require a higher level of realism. This launched them into creating a 3D-printing realistic organ that can bleed and beat. How they are creating their models is by using data gathered by real patients to acclimate to new scenarios.
Although their work isn’t directly creating organs for direct patient use, situations such as these are paving a clearer way toward perfecting a 3D-printed heart for human use.
Did you know?
2.6 billion
Is the average amount of beats of the human heart during a person lifetime.
Work Cited
Bhandari, Sagar, et al. “Trends and Challenges in the Development of 3D-Printed Heart Valves and Other Cardiac Implants: A Review of Current Advances - PMC.” Cureus, vol. 15, no. 8, https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.43204. Accessed 6 May 2025.
Clinic, Cleveland. “30 Facts About Your Heart.” Cleveland Clinic, 22 Aug. 2023, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/fun-facts-about-your-heart.
El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al. “Gelatin Nanofibers: Recent Insights in Synthesis, Bio-Medical Applications and Limitations - PMC.” Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 5, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16228. Accessed 6 May 2025.
Freeman, David. “Israeli Scientists Create World’s First 3D-Printed Heart Using Human Cells.” NBC News, 19 Apr. 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/israeli-scientists-create-world-s-first-3d-printed-heart-using-ncna996031.
National Science Foundation. “Fiber-Infused Ink Enables 3D-Printed Heart Muscle to Beat.” NSF - National Science Foundation, 7 Sept. 2023, https://www.nsf.gov/news/fiber-infused-ink-enables-3d-printed-heart-muscle.
Tyrer-Jones, Alex. “Researchers 3D Print New Ultra-Realistic Heart and Lung Models That Can Bleed, Beat, and Breath.” 3D Printing Industry, 14 Mar. 2025, https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/researchers-3d-print-new-ultra-realistic-heart-and-lung-models-that-can-bleed-beat-and-breath-229447/.
Xie, Mengbo, et al. “Application of Hydrogels as Three-Dimensional Bioprinting Ink for Tissue Engineering - PMC.” Gels, vol. 9, no. 2, https://doi.org/10.3390/gels9020088. Accessed 6 May 2025.
