As of Monday, April 15, 2019, there is a new medical advancement from the Israeli medical team. The worlds first human heart was made in a lab from a patients own cells, blood vessels, ventricles, and chambers. There has only been a success in 3D-printing simple tissues until now. The closest thing to a human heart is one without cells. The heart consists of substances such as sugars and proteins.
Theres been human hearts printed before this one. The heart has only tissues and not functioning blood vessels to make the heart viable to doctors. The average size of the new 3D heart is about a third of the size of an actual human heart. The human heart is yet to be functioning.
There is still work that needs completing with the new heart technology. It is only about a third of the size of an actual human heart. Regardless, it is one huge step closer to being able o transplant without rejection from the patient’s body and immune system. When the body does not recognize something, like a heart transplant, it will react to it in a negative way. Making it possible for error when operating on the body.
With this advancement, patients diagnosed with heart disease have more hope for the future. Being the leading cause of death in the United States, this is a breakthrough. A heart transplant is the only treatment available but there are not many donors. This could change the way we look at medicine moving forward with surgeries. Now its possible to customize organs to fit properly in the body. This is a big step forward for medical technology that could lead to advancements in the near future.
Preidt, Robert. “Israeli Team Announces First 3D-Printed Heart Using Human Cells – WebMD.” WebMD, WebMD, 15 Apr. 2019,
