3D Bioprinting Constructs to Facilitate Skin Regeneration

Abstract

In the last decade, the advent of 3D printing for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has engendered great interest for those involved in skin repair and regeneration. 3D bioprinting allows spatial distribution of skin cells into predefined custom‐made structures to produce living skin mimics on the bench for grafting or drug testing. The key aspect of 3D bioprinting lies in the formulation of printable bioinks serving as matrix mimics to house skin cells, alongside an appropriate combination of cells. In this review, bioink formulations, cell combinations, as well as manufacturing methods exploited to develop 3D bioprinted constructs for skin regeneration are summarized. Issues to do with the selection of suitable materials and cells to ensure the functionality of the resulting skin constructs and fabrication of skin appendages are also addressed.

In Situ 3D Bioprinting Living Photosynthetic Scaffolds for Autotrophic Wound Healing

“…Extensive and deep defects often necessitate the transplantation of autografts or allografts for wound closure, which may suffer from the shortage of donor tissues, infectious risk, and immunogenic rejection [ 11 – 13 ]. As an alternative and promising option, tissue engineering scaffolds have been elaborated for treating various wounds, especially for the large, deep, and chronic wounds [ 14 – 17 ]. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to fabricate the scaffolds with custom sizes and dimensions, which could adequately cover the wounds with varying depth or topography [ 18 ].…”

Strategies for vascularized skin modelsin vitro

“…However, direct bioprinting is mainly based on extrusion printing in the fabrication of prevascularized skin models in vitro , which has the problem of low resolution. 119 In contrast, indirect bioprinting can create hollow vascular channels with the help of sacrificial materials. Sacrificial materials play an important role in indirect bioprinting.…”

Leveraging the advancements in functional biomaterials and scaffold fabrication technologies for chronic wound healing applications

“…32 Hydro-gelation can be personalized by 3D bioprinting-based fabrication strategies, where the developed tissue constructs can conform to the shapes of individual wounds. 33 However, the network structures formulated by hydrogelation result in small pores, which are inefficient in transporting macromolecular solutes to the core of the designed construct. Cryogelation is an alternative strategy where interconnected macropores are generated, increasing nutrient transport and providing larger space for cell seeding and migration.…”