Bioprinting on Organ-on-Chip: Development and Applications

Abstract

Organs-on-chips (OoCs) are microfluidic devices that contain bioengineered tissues or parts of natural tissues or organs and can mimic the crucial structures and functions of living organisms. They are designed to control and maintain the cell- and tissue-specific microenvironment while also providing detailed feedback about the activities that are taking place. Bioprinting is an emerging technology for constructing artificial tissues or organ constructs by combining state-of-the-art 3D printing methods with biomaterials. The utilization of 3D bioprinting and cells patterning in OoC technologies reinforces the creation of more complex structures that can imitate the functions of a living organism in a more precise way. Here, we summarize the current 3D bioprinting techniques and we focus on the advantages of 3D bioprinting compared to traditional cell seeding in addition to the methods, materials, and applications of 3D bioprinting in the development of OoC microsystems.

Guiding organs-on-chips towards applications: a balancing act between integration of advanced technologies and standardization

“…By converging bioprinting technology with OoC platforms, the precise distribution of different cell types on physiologically relevant extracellular matrices can be achieved to maximize biomimicry, while allowing for fine control of biophysical culture parameters (Chliara et al, 2022). Bioprinting and microfluidic devices have been combined to establish a variety of humanized models, including tracheal (Park et al, 2018), liver (Lee et al, 2020), tumor (Yi et al, 2019), vascular (Zhang et al, 2016a), myocardium (Zhang et al, 2016b), kidney (Homan et al, 2016), lung (Kim et al, 2023), and placenta (Mandt et al, 1970) models.…”

Nanomaterials-Based Hybrid Bioink Platforms in Advancing 3D Bioprinting Technologies for Regenerative Medicine

“…17,21,38 This is owing to its ability to generate intricate and multifaceted 3D structures with superior spatial precision. 38 The combination of these two methods has shown great promise in creating diverse synthetic organ models such as the heart, 21,38,39 brain, 21 bone, 38,39 gut, 21 liver, 21,38 kidney, 21 lung, 21,38 vascular tissues, 21,38 ovaries, 21 placenta, 21 and more. The integration of living cells into miniaturized robots or biohybrid robots (biobots) has also gained attention in tissue engineering.…”

“…Currently, the utilization of nanocomposites-based bioinks in 3D bioprinting technology presents a highly efficacious approach to fabricating organ-on-a-chip platforms that amalgamate biology, chemistry, and engineering to fabricate miniature structures resembling native tissue. ,, This is owing to its ability to generate intricate and multifaceted 3D structures with superior spatial precision . The combination of these two methods has shown great promise in creating diverse synthetic organ models such as the heart, ,, brain, bone, , gut, liver, , kidney, lung, , vascular tissues, , ovaries, placenta, and more. The integration of living cells into miniaturized robots or biohybrid robots (biobots) has also gained attention in tissue engineering .…”

“…3D bioprinting methodology has been extensively utilized in numerous. applications in the sector of medical care and biomedical applications such as skin reconstruction, , cartilage engineering, , bone tissue engineering, vasculature tissue engineering, , neural tissue engineering, , cardiac tissue engineering, , skeletal muscle engineering, , wound healing, drug delivery, organ-on-chip, , and retina tissue engineering . Novel multicomponent bioink formulations are presently under development to enhance printability and improve mechanical strength and stiffness properties, regulate the rate of biodegradation, or incorporate bioactive molecules that significantly influence cellular activities and tissue development.…”

Heart-on-a-chip systems with tissue-specific functionalities for physiological, pathological, and pharmacological studies

“…Recently, 3D bioprinting has emerged as a promising biomanufacturing technology enabling precise control over the spatial and temporal distribution of cells and ECM [ 10 ]. With 3D bioprinting, 3D cellularized constructs with geometrical structures of native tissues or organs can be recapitulated, and the architectural mimicry of the native cardiac tissue makes it possible to engineer in vitro cardiac models with promising physical and biological relevance [ [11] , [12] , [13] ]. In addition, 3D bioprinting can accurately print in vitro tissue constructs with single-cell resolution, enabling better resemblance of the cellular microenvironments [ 14 , 15 ].…”