3D bioprinting and the current applications in tissue engineering

Abstract

Bioprinting as an enabling technology for tissue engineering possesses the promises to fabricate highly mimicked tissue or organs with digital control. As one of the biofabrication approaches, bioprinting has the advantages of high throughput and precise control of both scaffold and cells. Therefore, this technology is not only ideal for translational medicine but also for basic research applications. Bioprinting has already been widely applied to construct functional tissues such as vasculature, muscle, cartilage, and bone. In this review, the authors introduce the most popular techniques currently applied in bioprinting, as well as the various bioprinting processes. In addition, the composition of bioink including scaffolds and cells are described. Furthermore, the most current applications in organ and tissue bioprinting are introduced. The authors also discuss the challenges we are currently facing and the great potential of bioprinting. This technology has the capacity not only in complex tissue structure fabrication based on the converted medical images, but also as an efficient tool for drug discovery and preclinical testing. One of the most promising future advances of bioprinting is to develop a standard medical device with the capacity of treating patients directly on the repairing site, which requires the development of automation and robotic technology, as well as our further understanding of biomaterials and stem cell biology to integrate various printing mechanisms for multi-phasic tissue engineering.

Developing a Clinically Relevant Tissue Engineered Heart Valve—A Review of Current Approaches

“…Bioprinting is a more recent approach used to generate scaffolds for heart valve tissue engineering. 3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technique that enables complex 3D structures to be generated through layer‐by‐layer deposition of biomaterials, cells, and growth factors . The most common types of 3D bioprinting are inkjet, extrusion‐based, and laser‐assisted printing …”

Recent Advances in Enabling Technologies in 3D Printing for Precision Medicine

“…3D printing can be utilized in precision medicine to create patient‐specific implants, for the controlled delivery of therapeutics, or for patient‐specific in vitro models for drug screening ( Figure ) . In an ideal platform, these technologies would provide automated, reproducible results, while modular formulations and postprocessing methods would allow for easy plug‐and‐play incorporation of precision elements.…”

“…The next step in the process uses these inks to fabricate the constructs designed in the first step (Figure C). Many original 3D printing and biofabrication platforms ( Table 2 ) such as photolithography, inkjet printing, laser printing, robotic dispensing, and electrospinning are now available as standardized commercial systems and have been reviewed extensively elsewhere …”

“…Many original 3D printing and biofabrication platforms ( Table 2) such as photolithography, inkjet printing, laser printing, robotic dispensing, and electrospinning are now available as standardized commercial systems [29,30] and have been reviewed extensively elsewhere. [5,19,31] These 3D printing platforms enable precision medicine through applications such as personalized implants, [3,[38][39][40] precision delivery of therapeutics [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] and precision in vitro screening models [51][52][53][54] (Figure 1D-F). Printed constructs may be utilized for these applications directly after fabrication, or may undergo postprocessing, including culture of constructs containing cellular components.…”

Organ Bioprinting: Are We There Yet?

“…[2] It is defined as a procedure of synchronous printing of biomaterials and living cells for biological applications. [3] Obviously, cells cannot survive the rigorous processes of most 3D-printing procedures.…”