Tissue and Organ 3D Bioprinting

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting enables the creation of tissue constructs with heterogeneous compositions and complex architectures. It was initially used for preparing scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. It has recently been adopted to create living tissues, such as cartilage, skin, and heart valve. To facilitate vascularization, hollow channels have been created in the hydrogels by 3D bioprinting. This review discusses the state of the art of the technology, along with a broad range of biomaterials used for 3D bioprinting. It provides an update on recent developments in bioprinting and its applications. 3D bioprinting has profound impacts on biomedical research and industry. It offers a new way to industrialize tissue biofabrication. It has great potential for regenerating tissues and organs to overcome the shortage of organ transplantation.

Bioprinting

“…Microvalve printing uses pneumatically controlled pistons to eject droplets. Inkjet printing can print multiple inks at once that can be used to interact with each other to control scaffold properties and create complex structures with multiple types of cells [14][15][16].…”

“…A more complex bioprinted skin model has been achieved by printing multiple cell types [16,46,47]. Using a microvalve droplet system, initial investigatory work used both hFBs and hKCs suspended in cell media that were printed in-between layers of a printed collagen gel [46,47].…”

“…Further work included pigmentation of the printed skin model by printing human epidermal melanocytes (hMCs) into the epidermal layer [16], demonstrated in Figure 3. The hKCs reached a terminal differentiation to form a stratum corneum-like structure.…”

“…Wound sites treated with either the commercial graft or the bioprinted graft developed epidermal and dermal Figure 3. Bioprinted pigmented skin model fabricated using a microvalve droplet technique [16]. Fibroblasts are used for a dermal layer, and keratinocytes and melanocytes for an epidermal layer.…”

Software tools for cell culture-related 3D printed structures

“…Bioprinted structures increasingly yield phenotypic endpoints that are comparable with clinical studies and can provide a realistic prediction of clinical efficacy [1]. Several excellent papers review the various materials and bioprinting systems as well as their promise of clinical applications [2–6]. …”