3D Printed ‘Band-Aid’ for the Heart Could Help Heal Cardiac Tissues

Whether as a result of a heart attack, a disease like diabetes, smoking, drugs or an accident, damage to the heart is slow to heal by itself and often requires surgical intervention to prolong lifespan. But what if it was possible to repair it with artificial tissues? A University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) team, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, have developed a new way to 3D print a material that is both elastic and tough, making it capable of withstanding the heart’s beating. The result? A 3D printed ‘band-aid’ for the heart that could change the way that doctors replace or repair human body parts.

One of the key issues in developing materials for the heart is that it is necessary to be both strong and stretchy, while still being customizable in terms of shape and size for each patient. This is due to the nature of the organ: the constant beating means it is not possible to have a rigid plastic that is adhered to it. The material needs to be able to change with the heart, rigidity would result in fracturing. This means that biomedical devices and implants traditionally made with injection molding or casting are just not practical. Adding to that the fact that heart damage is both deadly and unable to be healed naturally, this material which could be used as a 3D printed ‘band-aid’ for the heart could really revolutionize cardiac patient care.

The stretchy material can be used as a 3D printed ‘band-aid’ for a heart

Senior author Jason Burdick, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at CU Boulder’s BioFrontiers Institute, further explains, “Cardiac and cartilage tissues are similar in that they have very limited capacity to repair themselves. When they’re damaged, there is no turning back. By developing new, more resilient materials to enhance that repair process, we can have a big impact on patients.”

Making a 3D Printed Band-Aid for a Heart

In order to create this 3D printed heart band-aid, the researcher developed their own 3D printed method. Named CLEAR (or Continuous-curing after Light Exposure Aided by Redox initiation), the process was inspired by the way that worms tangle and untangle around one another to make ‘worm blobs’ with solid and liquid-like properties. This showed researchers that by incorporated similarly intertwined chains of molecules, they can be made tougher.

To do this, they used hydrogels, a popular material for artificial tissues, organs and implants but which tends to break when strength, crack under pressure or are too stiff when 3D printed. The researchers then stretched and weight-loaded the materials made with the new 3D printing method, finding that they are exponentially tougher than materials printed with DLP. Furthermore, the material was still able to conform and stick to animal tissues and organs, meaning that it is possible to have 3D printed adhesive materials strong enough to mechanically support tissue, a world first.

The idea is that these 3D printed materials could be used for a variety of applications. For example, repairing defects in hearts, delivering tissue-regenerating drugs directly to organs or cartilage, restraining bulging discus or even stitching people up in the operating room without inflicting tissue damage. Additionally, though further research is required, it could even have applications outside medicine, especially as the new method does not require curing, making it more environmentally friendly.

First author and researcher in the Burdick Lab, Abhishek Dhand, concludes, “This is a simple 3D processing method that people could ultimately use in their own academic labs as well as in industry to improve the mechanical properties of materials for a wide variety of applications. It solves a big problem for 3D printing.” You can find out more in the press release from the University of Colorado Boulder HERE or in the published paper HERE.

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*All Photo Credits: Casey Cass/CU Boulder