Specialists of the Australian Center for Medical Research Aikenhed developed a special “3D-biurochka”, which prints stem cells, last year, but only now have the opportunity to test it properly. As a material for printing in the handle, a mixture of hydrogel and stem cells is used – this mixture allows to effectively repair cartilage tissue, healing difficult to treat damage.
Compared with other methods used by scientists before, it was the filling with stem cells that provided the best result in preliminary tests, so they decided to try a method of treatment on a sheep.
“The cartilage that we got with our new mixture and bioruchka surpasses the rest of the options in all respects, and we tested all the popular methods on the sheep, usually used in the treatment of people,” says one of the researchers of DiBella.
Successful tests and positive experience with the use of the pen point to an early possibility of using technology in treating people. It is expected that they will start clinical trials on humans before the end of this year, and while researchers patent the invention and settle details with documents.
