00:00 [Music]
00:09 [Music]
00:11 Our brains and internal organs are all supported by the skeleton, our bones.
00:17 [Music]
00:20 If any bone is lost through disease or injury, it must be replaced with a bone graft.
00:25 [Music]
00:28 This new type of synthetic bone graft, a world first, is grown by the patient's body itself.
00:34 [Music]
00:37 It was developed by this Tokyo medical technology company.
00:41 [Music]
00:44 The inventor, Shigeki Suzuki, was motivated by the suffering of someone close to him.
00:49 [Music]
00:52 My friend's two-year-old daughter developed a cancer that required her upper jaw to be removed.
00:58 This tragedy made me determined to find a better way to treat such diseases.
01:03 [Music]
01:05 Because this patient was so young, just two years old,
01:09 a conventional titanium graft would need replacing many times as she grew.
01:13 [Music]
01:16 As Suzuki grappled with the problem, he started focusing on the mechanism behind bone regeneration.
01:23 [Music]
01:26 Just like skin and hair, our bones are continually being renewed.
01:31 [Music]
01:34 This is what it looks like inside a bone at the cellular level.
01:38 [Music]
01:40 Certain cells are constantly at work destroying old bone.
01:45 [Music]
01:49 Different cells follow in their path to build new, replacement bone.
01:54 [Music]
01:58 Suzuki developed a special form of calcium to produce synthetic bone
02:02 with a composition very similar to natural bone.
02:05 [Music]
02:07 The body thinks the graft is part of itself.
02:10 This fools it into starting the regeneration process and creating natural bone on top of the graft.
02:16 [Music]
02:17 As time passes, the body grows new bone to replace the revolutionary synthetic graft.
02:23 [Music]
02:25 In this example, a patient lost one side of their jaw, leaving an unbalanced face.
02:30 [Music]
02:32 A synthetic graft was implanted.
02:35 The body began regenerating its lost bone tissue,
02:38 and one year later, virtually all the patient's jaw was natural bone again.
02:43 [Music]
02:51 Produced using a 3D printer, these are the world's first synthetic grafts that grow into natural bone.
02:58 [Music]
03:05 A CT scanner is used to measure the patient's bones with 0.1 millimeter accuracy,
03:10 ensuring the synthetic graft will be an exact match.
03:14 [Music]
03:17 Holes for bone marrow to pass are also reproduced to encourage the natural growth process.
03:23 [Music]
03:28 Dr. Tsuyoshi Takato is a specialist in reconstructive surgery.
03:33 He took part in the development of the new technology.
03:36 [Music]
03:38 The 3D printer produces such a precise fit that we can attach the graft using just two stitches.
03:44 That makes the whole process very swift to perform.
03:48 But what patients like best about it is that when it's finished, their body will look exactly as it did before.
03:57 [Music]
04:00 Regenerating bones to order, this new technology is already helping patients in hospitals all over Japan.
04:08 [Music]
04:12 [Silence]
04:18 [Mouse click, then ping]
04:21 [Silence]
Comments