Recent advances in bioprinting techniques: approaches, applications and future prospects.

Jipeng Li,Mingjiao Chen,Xianqun Fan,Huifang Zhou

doi:10.1186/s12967-016-1028-0

Abstract

Bioprinting technology shows potential in tissue engineering for the fabrication of scaffolds, cells, tissues and organs reproducibly and with high accuracy. Bioprinting technologies are mainly divided into three categories, inkjet-based bioprinting, pressure-assisted bioprinting and laser-assisted bioprinting, based on their underlying printing principles. These various printing technologies have their advantages and limitations. Bioprinting utilizes biomaterials, cells or cell factors as a “bioink” to fabricate prospective tissue structures. Biomaterial parameters such as biocompatibility, cell viability and the cellular microenvironment strongly influence the printed product. Various printing technologies have been investigated, and great progress has been made in printing various types of tissue, including vasculature, heart, bone, cartilage, skin and liver. This review introduces basic principles and key aspects of some frequently used printing technologies. We focus on recent advances in three-dimensional printing applications, current challenges and future directions.

Highlights

The loss or failure of organs and tissues is a difficult and costly problem in healthcare
The limited supply of organs globally [1] has motivated research on tissue engineering, the design of a cell-scaffoldmicroenvironment to promote the regeneration of various types of tissue, e.g., skin [2], cartilage [3], bone [4], tendon [5] and cardiac tissue [6]
Less than 8 % of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were lysed in the printing process, indicating that mammalian cells can be successfully printed by inkjet bioprinting and retain their functions, with good prospects for creating living tissue structures or organs

Summary

Introduction

The loss or failure of organs and tissues is a difficult and costly problem in healthcare. This review focuses on the key elements of 3D bioprinting technology used to fabricate very precise scaffolds and the applications of printing-specific modeling used in patient preoperative planning and the production of artificial tissues or organs for implantation. Bioprinting technologies and their applications We have summarized 3D printing techniques frequently utilized for scaffold fabrication, cell behavior studies and tissue repair (Table 1).

Results

Conclusion