3D printing will help restore intervertebral discs

We have already printed a lot of articles about health of back and ways to keep up health. Special chair for office workers, different exercises and sports might be helpful. But what if spine bone is already damaged? One of the most common illnesses is damage of intervertebral discs (in the U.S. , for example, about 30 million people suffer from such illness in one form or another). A group of scientists from Cornell University (USA) is now working at method of regeneration of damaged intervertebral discs.

For this purpose, a special substance rich in stem cells is used. This is the substance biomechanical printer works with; it restores damages discs space. Once stem cells begin to interact with "native" cells of disc, they are transformed into relevant tissue, and in such a way it restores damaged space. A few weeks later patient shall be healthy and shall not have problems with renewed disc.

Despite the technology is totally unbelievable, it is almost implemented. Large-scale implementation is not far off, and by now about 100 patients have already experienced this method of regeneration of damaged intervertebral discs (though these patients are not yet people but rats).