A potential cure for diabetes?

Did you know that over 450 million people around the world currently have diabetes? Diabetes is an often debilitating condition that is the second-leading cause of amputation and the number-one cause of blindness among adults.

But we may be close to curing diabetes with the help of a printed pancreas. The new technology is the future of lab-grown organs for the replacement of body parts, and it’s surprisingly advanced.

Readily3D, a spin-off of EPFL, developed a new method to print biological tissues using a biological gel that contains the patient's stem cells. A laser is used to harden the gel by polymerization, and the laser beam's position and intensity may be adjusted to harden the portions of gel required to make the appropriate tissue.

Impressively enough, the method takes just 30 seconds for living tissue to be printed out on a bioprinter complete with blood vessels and all. This has never been done before and could revolutionize how we produce replacement organs.

The printed pancreas secretes a spectrum of critical hormones like insulin, which help regulate blood sugar levels. From now on, diabetes could soon be treated by creating a bio-printed pancreas to exactly match the patient's deficient one.

This could eliminate the need to put patients on drugs that often have nefarious side effects and also get rid of animal testing. The solution is a win-win for all.

Moreover, the technology could also one day be used to build all kinds of other organs.

Find out more information at https://bit.ly/3gYuaRS

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Видео A potential cure for diabetes? канала Interesting Engineering