Far too many media blogs, general bloggers, and articles tout the impending emergence of a 3D printing organ industry that will alleviate our organ transplant crisis. They tend to state that we will successfully 3D print an organ within 10 years. Such claims show a cringe-worthy lack of understanding about basic human biology and science.

Do they have any idea of how complex a human organ is? Today, we can 3D print something that looks like a liver, or kidney, or heart. But a fully functional organ? I’m not convinced it will happen in my lifetime. Various medical papers, such as Organ printing: computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering, by Vladimir Mironov, Thomas Boland, Thomas Trusk, Gabor Forgacs, and Roger R. Markwald, refer to this idea as a hypothesis, and rightly so. It remains to be proved.

The hyped claims of a 3D printed fully functional organ are reckless journalism. (But when you’re paid to be controversial, apparently anything goes as long as it gets attention.)

Here’s an example of why I think the hype has gone too far: Ask yourself, how many functions does the liver perform? Answer: more than 500. How many types of cells does a kidney have? 30 different types. How many functions does a kidney perform? It regulates the composition of your blood, it maintains your water volume, it regulates your blood pressure, it removes toxic acids from your tissues and fluids, it maintains specific concentrations of ions, salts, calcium, and other chemicals you need to live. Each of your two kidneys is composed of about a million nephrons, a structure that itself is composed of different types of cells, that filter, reabsorb, and secrete various components of your blood. That’s just a few of your kidneys’ functions.

Complex? You bet. 3D printing an airplane is easy by comparison.

I don’t doubt that companies like TeVido and Organovo will eventually have a business 3D printing tissues (for research or grafts), heart valves, spinal implants, prosthetic parts such as ears, and joints, bones, and other “bits and pieces.” But a fully functional, living organ is different.

The false impression that recent media stories make is that we will—soon—be able to 3D print something like an “organ-in-a-box that’s ready to plug-and-play.” My problem with this idea is where is the organ “start” button? Once implanted, how do you get the organ to turn on? How long will it keep functioning? The assumption from these stories is that once implanted and “on” the organ will function for the life of the recipient. Where’s the research that backs this claim? Oh, we don’t have it yet.

The other false assumption is that an organ is an independent entity not affected by its environment, that a 3D printed mimic can be created without consideration to the rest of the body, and then just plugged in and turned on. In a recent article from Popular Science, noted Cornell engineer Hod Lipson is quoted as saying that even though he was able to 3D print a meniscus (part of the knee joint), creating it is not just a matter of printing cells in the right place. He discovered in conversations with surgeons that his printed meniscus would not survive a human body’s routine functioning. Your meniscus is shaped by all the pounding it takes every day as you walk, run, and move. As Lipson noted, “The pounding that’s in their environment is actually very much a part of (the meniscus’) growth.”

Can we 3D print organs that can interact with the rest of the human body—the enzymes, the hormones, the blood and oxygen supply, the chemical communication that occurs continuously within the human body? If not, it doesn’t matter how closely a 3D printed organ looks like the organic, original version, it won’t survive long in a human body. It’s not just a matter of laying down cells “in the right place.” There’s more to how an organ functions than that.

And, now for the cost issue. Part of the attraction of 3D printing is its ability to develop custom objects. A custom organ made by cells from the intended recipient stands a better chance of resisting rejection. But what will it cost to develop a custom organ? You’ve got the amortization costs of the special 3D printing machine, the software, and other devices and units required to even print an organ. Then you have the costs of research, special growing environments, and so on. Will it even be feasible to use from a cost standpoint? Will it be less than the traditional route of organ transplant? Right now TeVido is looking for $40 million to take its technology of tissue creation to market.

It’s great to experiment with the idea of 3D printing tissues and various “bits and pieces” of the body; who knows what science will discover. But the media needs to educate itself better. There was a time when most journalists were skeptics first, writers second. Journalists and bloggers should view these claims of having viable organs within a decade as optimistic (at best) on the part of those with a vested interest in such success.

3D printing, additive layering is a fabulous technology. But is it the answer to everything?

Leslie Langnau
llangnau@wtwhmedia.com