Bioprinting Skin

[ysabetwordsmith]

Human skin is likely to be the first artificially produced organ for transplant.  3D-printed skin has layers like natural skin, but is much simpler than intricate organs like a heart.  This would make it possible to patch burns and other major injuries without cannibalizing the patient's own body for spare parts or using risky foreign tissue.  And yes, it can still save lives, because the skin the biggest organ on the body and losing too much of it is fatal.

Comments

[technoshaman]

Indeed! latest stuff off the googles indicates that as little as 30% burn coverage can be outright fatal, and 10% (a full arm, one side of a torso, more than half a leg) will get you transported straight to a burn center (which around here still means Harborview)...

3d printing skin. My youngest will be interested....

Funny thing, when I first read your headline I thought, oh cool, tattoo without a needle? I might consider that...

Hey, waitaminit. If you're gonna 3d print skin, you could easily (and should!) add pigment...

This gonna git INNERESTING.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Indeed! latest stuff off the googles indicates that as little as 30% burn coverage can be outright fatal, <<

That's for things like fluid loss, temperature control, etc. It takes a lot less than that to kill you with complications, like getting an infection, and a burn is not a friendly injury to heal.

>> and 10% (a full arm, one side of a torso, more than half a leg) will get you transported straight to a burn center (which around here still means Harborview)... <<

Or 1% on a delicate area like face or genitals, or third degree that's more than a tiny spot. I came across those details while researching Shiv's facial injury, because a bad abrasion is similar to a burn in terms of destroying the skin's ability to do essential things like retain fluid and block germs.

>> Funny thing, when I first read your headline I thought, oh cool, tattoo without a needle? I might consider that... <<

There are other ways to do that. Transdermal ink is possible with any carrier that forces things through the skin. The challenge is finding ink with molecules small enough to fit through, and you're limited to fairly simple designs because the granularity isn't very fine.

>> Hey, waitaminit. If you're gonna 3d print skin, you could easily (and should!) add pigment... <<

We're a ways off from the best way to do that, which is gengeneering the natural pigments into patterns. Some are very easy, like stripes or dapples. But to make that work, you need the ability to despecialize DNA so that it won't get rejected. Much, much easier is 3D printing a scaffold and seeding it with the recipient's cells to grow their own skin in a vat.

>>This gonna git INNERESTING.<<

Agreed.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Cutie marks! ;)

[redsixwing]

...huh. This IS going to get interesting. xD

This recent article (distressing! contains description of burn victim treatment after the White Island eruption) talked some about why skin may be necessary in large amounts. Being able to print it up as needed would spare some difficulties, especially if you could ensure it wouldn't reject.