An artificial organ is a synthetic device that is made to replace a defective or malfunctioning organ in a human patient. This way, the normal function of the transplanted tissue or organ can be restored. Artificial organs are designed in such a way that they do not have to depend on a continuous power supply or chemical filters, in a way they are self sustaining. An artificial organ can serve many purposes such as:
Short term life support: short term life support for organ awaiting patients.
Self care: Artificial limbs can be implanted in individuals to enhance self care.
Improvement of social interaction: one example is the restoration of hearing ability such as cochlear implants.
Cosmetic restoration: facial reconstruction after accident or cancer surgery.
Initially biomedical engineering was employed
in artificial organ development which aimed at developing mechanical structures
based on functioning organs. Examples of early artificial organs are pace-maker
in the heart and mechanical prosthetic limbs. However, recent advances in stem
cell technology have given a major boost to the development of artificial
organs that are similar to the natural
organs.
Organ development through
tissue engineering is a very promising solution for artificial organ
development. A few examples of organs that are being developed for transplant
are:
Bioartificial windpipe: it was the first
artificially produced organ that was successfully transplanted in human
patients.
Artificial Bladder: polyglycolic acid scaffolds have
been suggested as a substrate for urinary bladder construction.
Artificial pancreas: previously xenografts of
islets cells were used to develop a pancreas which was successfully transplanted
in test animals without the use of immunosuppression. Seeding islet stem cells
on the surface of biocompatible scaffolds in order to regulate the production
of insulin in diabetic patients is currently being tested for transplantation
into human subjects.
Organ printing: the Future of Artificial Organ Development
The next generation of
synthetic organs will be visualized thanks to a 3D printing technique. Three
dimensional organ printing makes use of computer aided additive biofabrication of tissue constructs and technology known as rapid prototyping (RP). RP can be
used to print three dimensional structure using cells, biomaterials and cell
laden biomaterials.
References
Atala, A., Freeman, M. R., Vacanti, J. P., Shepard,
J., & Retik, A. B. (1993). Implantation in vivo and retrieval of artificial
structures consisting of rabbit and human urothelium and human bladder muscle. The
Journal of Urology, 150(2 Pt 2), 608–12. Retrieved from
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/8326605
Baiguera, S., Birchall, M. A., & Macchiarini, P. (2010).
Tissue-engineered tracheal transplantation. Transplantation, 89(5),
485–91. doi:10.1097/TP.0b013e3181cd4ad3
Maki, T., Otsu, I., O’Neil, J. J., Dunleavy, K., Mullon, C. J., Solomon,
B. A., & Monaco, A. P. (1996). Treatment of diabetes by xenogeneic islets
without immunosuppression. Use of a vascularized bioartificial pancreas. Diabetes,
45(3), 342–7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8593940
Ozbolat, I. T., & Yu, Y. (2013). Bioprinting toward organ fabrication:
challenges and future trends. IEEE Transactions on Bio-Medical Engineering,
60(3), 691–9. doi:10.1109/TBME.2013.2243912
This posting kind of confused me. When I think artificial organ I automatically think like a heart, kidney, or liver that was made in the lab that can function like a normal organ. I never thought about the idea that prosthetic limbs, cochlear implants, or pace makers are considered artificial organs. I am very interested however, in the technology of 3D printing. I know I shouldn't get my medical information from Grey's Anatomy but that is where I first heard of 3D printing being used for medical purposes. I would love to learn more about the process works and what materials are being used to simulate the tissues of the human body.
ReplyDeleteDo you know the life expectancy of an artificial organs? If it is possible, I would love to hear and learn more about the 3D printing. It sounds so amazing and I never knew such things existed. To me, I think it is a wonderful things that we can restore our body with artificial organs and eventually every human can live a long life than we intended. On the side notes, does artificial organs cause less to created and/or purchase than an actual organs from someone else?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure is that right or not, i read some books that talks about artificial eyes. people who are blind can create a pair of eyes to insert in the skull to help people gain back vision. Do you think is it worktable or not? On the other hand, artificial is a good development for organ transplantation, the reason is because it can inhibit the black market to sell organ. I hope I can hear more about the artificial organ in the future.
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