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Developing Tissues and organs in vitro have played a significant role in medical sciences. Just like replacing a worn out or faulty part of any mechanical or automated machine, the advancement of science and technology in this field of tissue and organ development made it possible to replace failure or dysfunctioning organs of the human body. This has taken the medical science to the next level bringing hopes for the patients requiring organ transplantation or tissue grafting.

Organ transplantation done initially involves transfer of organs from one individual to the suffering individual. Kidney transfer is the best example to validate this statement. Kidney from a healthy donor can effectively be transferred to the recipient. Availability of a donor, finding a suitable donor and donor – recipient tissue match are some of the restriction factors in organ transplantion. But when the situation arose for the requirement of a heart or liver transplant then it became quite difficult. This attracted various fields like nano technology and tissue engineering to build a organ or tissue in vitro. Even research on xeno transplantation which involves the transfer of organ from animal to human has produced favourable results. The knowledge on stem cells marking its ability to develop into any of the tissue or organ not only encouraged researchers in bringing a major outbreak in developing various therapies using stem cells but also creating awareness among the population on the use of stem cells and importance of its preservation.

With the step by step advancement from the organ transplant, xeno transplant, tissue engineering, stem cell therapy now the recent and revolutionizing development is the regeneration of tissues and organs by using bio ink with the help of a printer. It might seem to be beyond imagination but the ongoing research proves it to be possible. What an ordinary man does with a printer? Has he ever imagined getting tissues or organs printed? It is no more a fiction and researches have made it real.

All the stuff required is an exclusively designed printer, two cartridges out of which one is filled with a gel kind of thing called as bio paper and the other is filled with Bio ink the vital component of the entire project. What is this Bio ink? What does it constitute and how it is made? are the general queries popping up in one’s mind coming across this technology. The basic constituent of Bio ink is the suspension of viable cells. The composition of Bio ink varies between laboratories experimenting on the tissue or organ printing. The technology behind printing organ or tissue is easy to understand. The exclusively designed printer is loaded with the two cartridges one holding the Bio ink and the other holding the gel which acts as the supporting layer can also be called as a bio paper.

At the onset of printing the cartridges functions in such a way that alternate layers of Bio paper and Bio ink are printed to build a two dimensional or three dimensional structures. To explain in better terms, first a layer of bio gel/ bio paper is printed above which the bio ink is sprayed from the other cartridge. The continuation of the sequence on constant run of the printer results in the formation of the layers of the gel and the Bio ink. The layer of cells separated by the bio paper starts fusing together enhanced by various protein and biological factors resulting in a rigid tissue structure.

Initial development of this technology substantiates a method to screen drugs and to evaluate toxicants. The cells viability, its nature to settle down are the parameters considered by the scientists while preparing Bio ink. Also it is identified that a droplet of Bio ink holds only one single cell which is considered as an added advantage in printing tissues.

The research crew from University of Wollongong, researchers from Carnegie Mellon and university of Pittsburgh, researchers at University of Missouri, Columbia has developed unique Bio inks independently and further research is ongoing.

Initially this method was developed with an aim to generate skin and later considered the use of bone cells and muscle cells. The advancement of Bio ink technology entering organ printing will definitely be a revolution in medical science and the days are not too far to get an organ printed.