A Review on 3D Printable Techniques for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

A rapid revolution in the medical health care sector is expected due to the use of medical products fabricated from 3D printer technology. Several researches have been carried on the innovative achievements of biomaterials using 3D printing. This advancement in biomaterials leads to an increasing trend in the use of 3D printer even in medical research. During 3D printing, the materials are transformed into desired shape with the application of heat, laser, or other energies. Hence, as per the mechanical property, materials react towards the external energy to define the design capability. 3D printing technology has the ability to convert the two-dimensional image obtained from non-invasive scanning imaging of human body, i.e., computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan into a 3D digital model of any shape. The combined uses of biomaterials and 3D printing technologies have made significant improvement in the field of tissue engineering. Due to shortage of donor organs and also lack of facility to preserve them leads to the demand of artificial tissues. In this review paper, we firstly introduce about the various types of conventional and recent 3D printing technologies, biomaterials, and additives which changes its physical properties. And finally, summarize the applications of 3D printing technique in medical applications. There is the possibility to increase resolution and print single cell layer using piezoelectric transducer at the printer head in FDM-based printing technique which is described as the proposed technique in the paper.