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From Repair to Replacement: Bioprinting in Orthopedics and Regenerative Medicine
Beyond the high-profile quest to print full, complex organs, the 3D bioprinting market is finding immediate and widespread success in orthopedics and musculoskeletal regenerative medicine. Injuries to cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons are common, costly, and often difficult to treat effectively with existing materials.
Bioprinting offers a solution by fabricating customized scaffolds and tissue patches using biocompatible materials and the patient's own cells (chondrocytes for cartilage, osteoblasts for bone). This allows for the precise creation of implants that perfectly match the defect's geometry, which is crucial for full functional recovery and integration with the native tissue.
For example, in cartilage repair, bioprinting can create intricate porous structures that encourage the patient's cells to colonize the scaffold and generate new, functional cartilage, a tissue that has very limited self-healing capabilities. This is a massive improvement over traditional synthetic implants, which often…