There is a new way of healing and treating bone injuries by using a 3-d printed bone called "hyperelastic bone". The bone has been tested on monkey's and rats but is not ready for human testing although it soon will be. Once the bone is ready for human implants, it will be able to fix mended bones and bones that cause damage from cancer. Surgeons commonly use autograft, which is a graft of tissue from one point to another of the same individual's body. The surgeons like the autograft because you have the stem cells, that helps growth in the patients body. since the autograph comes form the patients body the immune system won't reject it. Also, autograph doesn't always make bone or cartilage. The alternative way is scaffolds which is what the researchers used. The scaffolds are both natural and synthetic materials which is like cement that keeps the blocks together on a building. CaP or calcium phosphate is what helps the stem cell grow and make it easy for bones to reach it's potential. Researchers tried to put the hyper elastic bone in the body but the body attacks it because it thinks its foreign and kills it off. Researchers came up with an idea to use hydroxyapatite, polycaprolactone polymer and a solvent. They tested it on a rats vertebrae. Eight weeks after testing the rats, they saw development of new tissue and blood vessels. Due to the outcome, it was a success. Another test was on a monkey that had skull damage and was also a success. There wasn't any infections or problems with the 3-d printed material. The research team said "the sky is the limit"
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