Cartilage made using hybrid 3D printer

esearchers have developed a way to "print" cartilage that could help treat joint diseases and sporting injuries.

They say that the new material is more robust and hardwearing than previous efforts to create artificial cartilage.

A traditional ink-jet printer combined with a specialised spinning-machine is used to make it.

It could lead to bespoke cartilage created for individual patients. But one expert warned it was too early to be confident it would ever be used.

The study was published in the Institute of Physic's journal Biofabrication.

It marks the latest effort to use 3D printers in medicine following the use of a machine to make a replacement lower jaw and efforts to create 3D-printed scaffolds to support the growth of bone cells.