HANGZHOU - A Chinese team has used a specialized 3D printer to produce tiny sections of the liver that could eventually be used a form a full artificial version of the organ, it announced on Friday.

The hepatic lobules, of which there are around a million in a human liver, were printed on the Regenovo 3D bio-print Work Station designed by the team at Hangzhou Electronic Science and Technology University.

This had a far more specific medical design than most 3D printers, which have industrial purposes, said team leader Xu Mingen.