Laser Assisted Bio-printing (LAB) of Cells and Bio-materials Based on Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT)

Abstract

Laser assisted bio-printing (LAB) is an emerging and complementary technology in the field of tissue engineering envisaging biomimetics applications. LAB allows to print cells and liquid materials with a cell-level resolution, which is comparable to the complex histology of living tissues. By giving tissue engineers control on cell density and organization, LAB potentially holds promise to fabricate living tissues with biomimetic physiological functionality. In this chapter, the physical parameters related to laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) technique, which is implemented in the LAB, are presented. These parameters, such as laser pulse energy and bio-ink viscosity are critical to control the cell printing process. They must be tuned according to each other in order to print viable cell patterns with respect to cell-level histological organization. Processing time is a concern when addressing tissue engineering involving living material like cells. Therefore, concerns regarding the design and technical implementation of LAB based rapid prototyping workstation are discussed. Experimental requirements are described in order to fabricate tissues using LAB. Some typical multi-component printing, 3D printing approaches and bio-printing in vivo are presented.