3D Printer Trumps Pig Parts for Kidney Replacements
3D printers may hold the key to successfully producing the first transplantable kidneys for humans. Before 3D bioprinting was widely available, researchers were using pig kidneys as scaffolds to hold human kidney cells. They would take a pig kidney and wash away the internal cells, leaving the basic structure behind. Then, they would use human or animal cells to fill the scaffold back up. This process has never resulted in a kidney that could be successfully transplanted into a human.
