Experiment sees cartilage tissue bioprinted in space

Russian companies Roscosmos and Invitro-owned 3D Bioprinting Solutions have seen their technology bioprint human tissue in space.

The Organaut bioprinter, created for use in space, was used by Russian cosmonaut-researcher Oleg Kononenko to print human cartilage tissue and a rodent thyroid gland.

3dprint.com reports that "the Organaut bioprints by extruding materials from a syringe, allowing cells to grow into a form which may not be as similar to their normal state as researchers always wish."

The experiment was part of the Magnetic 3D bioprinter project which began two years ago when an agreement was reached to conduct the experiment on the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). It has allowed scientists to analyse how space microgravity affects the efficiency of creating living tissues and organ constructs.

The analysis from 3D Bioprinting Solutions is expected to be completed and published in the first half of 2019.