Recent trends in bioinks for 3D printing

Janarthanan Gopinathan,Insup Noh

doi:10.1186/s40824-018-0122-1

Janarthanan Gopinathan, Insup Noh

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40824-018-0122-1

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundThe worldwide demand for the organ replacement or tissue regeneration is increasing steadily. The advancements in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have made it possible to regenerate such damaged organs or tissues into functional organ or tissue with the help of 3D bioprinting. The main component of the 3D bioprinting is the bioink, which is crucial for the development of functional organs or tissue structures. The bioinks used in 3D printing technology require so many properties which are vital and need to be considered during the selection. Combination of different methods and enhancements in properties are required to develop more successful bioinks for the 3D printing of organs or tissue structures.Main bodyThis review consists of the recent state-of-art of polymer-based bioinks used in 3D printing for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The subsection projects the basic requirements for the selection of successful bioinks for 3D printing and developing 3D tissues or organ structures using combinations of bioinks such as cells, biomedical polymers and biosignals. Different bioink materials and their properties related to the biocompatibility, printability, mechanical properties, which are recently reported for 3D printing are discussed in detail.ConclusionMany bioinks formulations have been reported from cell-biomaterials based bioinks to cell-based bioinks such as cell aggregates and tissue spheroids for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Interestingly, more tunable bioinks, which are biocompatible for live cells, printable and mechanically stable after printing are emerging with the help of functional polymeric biomaterials, their modifications and blending of cells and hydrogels. These approaches show the immense potential of these bioinks to produce more complex tissue/organ structures using 3D bioprinting in the future.

Highlights

The worldwide demand for the organ replacement or tissue regeneration is increasing steadily
laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) technology is preferred in Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting in a few cases [17,18,19,20,21], where the laser is focused towards a laser absorbing biomaterial layer which helps in developing a local pressure to release ink layer [17, 21]
This review presents the requirements for the selection of bioinks and the properties of the different polymeric biomaterials which are used as bioinks for 3D printing based on their ability to support cell growth, printability, etc

Summary

Conclusion

Many bioinks formulations have been reported from cell-biomaterials based bioinks to cell-based bioinks such as cell aggregates and tissue spheroids for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Markstedt et al reported a nanocellulose alginate-based bioinks for cartilage tissue engineering with improved cell viability and mechanical properties of the printed 3D constructs [88]. In another work reported by Ávila et al, the nanocellulose hydrogels were used for developing patient-specific auricular cartilage tissue from 3D bioprinting method Those constructs showed excellent shape, size retention and high cell viability after printing. Even though cell laden biomaterial bioinks are highly used, ECM-based bioinks, decellularized bioinks, cell aggregates or spheroids are showing promising results towards the development of functional tissues or organs using 3D bioprinting technology These techniques need very large number of specific cells which limits its use in different tissues and organs. Apart from the bioinks, it is considered that the development of advanced bioprinters

A: Enhance cell adhesion factors like RGD

Findings

A: Good compatibility when blended