A silicon artificial heart made with a 3D printer that moves like a real heart

In regenerative medicine, "outputting heart as 3D print" is one of the big goals, researchersMake artificial heart close to 'real heart' with 3D printer by 2023I am making plans. A research team at the Zurich Technical University succeeded in output on a 3D printer of a silicon artificial heart like a real heart, which makes this plan really realize.

Testing a soft artificial heart | ETH Zurich
https://www.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2017/07/artificial_heart.html


The Zurich Institute of Technology has released a demonstration at YouTube.

Testing a soft artificial heart - YouTube


Nicholas Cohrs, a member of a research team led by Professor Wendelin Stark of the Department of Functional Materials Engineering at the Zurich Polytechnic University of Technology, has created a silicon "soft" artificial heart.


Currently, artificial hearts widely used include various types such as in-vivo type and extracorporeal type, but in both cases the size exceeds the real heart. However, this silicon artificial heart is about the same size as the real heart.


A 3D printer is used for creation, and the weight is 390 g.


Just like a real heart there is a left ventricle, a right ventricle ... ...


There is also an auxiliary room that plays the role of muscles to hit the pulse.


As you can see from the picture, the artificial heart made of silicone pulsates like a real heart.


However, the endurance degree is about 3000 beats per heartbeat is different from the real heart. This indicates that the usable time is about 30 to 45 minutes.


Cohrs says, "This time for the end of the feasibility test, our goal is to show a new direction to the development of artificial heart." Now that the problem of the material is clarified, if research on the artificial heart further progresses, by 2023, it seems that it is not a dream tale to "create a real heart" with a 3D printer.