A State‐of‐the‐Art Review of Laser‐Assisted Bioprinting and its Future Research Trends

Abstract

Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technology with great potential in medical applications. Among available bioprinting techniques, laser-assisted bioprinting (LAB) is a promising technique due to its high resolution, high cell viability, and the capability to deposit high-viscousity bioink. These characteristics allow the LAB technology to control cells precisely to reconstruct living organs. Recent developments of LAB technologies are reviewed in this paper, covering various designs of LAB printers, re-search progresses in energy-absorbing layer (EAL), the physical phenomenon that triggers the printing process in terms of bubble formation and jet development, printing process parameters, and major factors related to the post-printing cell viability. The latest studies on LAB technologies are highlighted, expounding their advantages and disadvantages, and some potential applications are presented. The potential technical challenges and future research trends for LAB technologies are also discussed.

Natural Hydrogel-Based Bio-Inks for 3D Bioprinting in Tissue Engineering: A Review

“…For instance, while higher viscosities of the bio-ink may enhance the stability of the construct, highly viscous bio-inks may have unfavorable effects on extrusion pressure, with more pressure required for higher viscosities when the extrusion-based bioprinting technology is employed. Thus, bio-inks showing a viscosity of 10 mPa·s will be best suited for droplet-based printers, while extrusion-based bioprinters and laser-assisted bioprinters require bio-inks with viscosities of 30 to 6 × 10 7 mPa·s and 1 to 8000 mPa·s [ 178 , 179 ], respectively. For the vat polymerization bioprinting, bio-inks with viscosities from 250 to 10,000 mPa·s are preferred.…”

Current Advances in 3D Bioprinting for Cancer Modeling and Personalized Medicine

“…Inkjet printing is the most common technology used for droplet generation and consists of a piezoelectric or thermal actuator that allows the precise deposition of the droplets down to 50 μm [ 17 , 18 ]. Laser-based droplet deposition allows single-cell deposition and, as a non-contact method, is responsible for low shear stress and thus excellent viability; the drawback is the expensive price of this type of 3D printer [ 19 , 20 ]. There are also other less-used approaches, such as acoustic- or valve-based droplet bioprinting technologies [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Current Advances and Future Perspectives of Advanced Polymer Processing for Bone and Tissue Engineering: Morphological Control and Applications

“…Compared with conventional processing, 3D printing technology has better customization and can prepare complex geometry for special purposes, which has great potential in the field of biomedical engineering. Especially, inkjet 3D printing ( Murphy and Atala, 2014 ; Saunders and Derby, 2014 ; Knowlton et al, 2015 ; Mandrycky et al, 2016 ; Lee et al, 2019 ) and laser assisted bioprinting ( Barron et al, 2004 ; Palla-Papavlu et al, 2011 ; Dou et al, 2021 ) exhibits rapid development and inspiring potential, which deserved an opportune review and attention.…”