A team of Brazilian researchers have succesfully bioprinted tiny organoids that perform all of the human liver's functions, Brazilian news service Agência FAPESP reports ? functions including building proteins, storing vitamins and secreting bile.
The researchers had to cultivate and reprogram human stem cells, and then 3D print them in layers to form tissue.
While the "mini-livers" perform the functions of a liver, they're unfortunately still a far cry from an actual full-scale liver.
"More stages have yet to be achieved until we obtain a complete organ, but we're on the right track to highly promising results," Mayana Zatz, one of the authors of the paper published in the journal Biofabrication, told Agência FAPESP.
Not only could printed livers end a reliance on a very short supply of donor organs, they might end up being safer as well.
"Another important advantage is zero probability of rejection, given that the cells come from the patient," adds Zatz.
More at: https://futurism.com/neoscope/scient...man-mini-liver