Recent Trends in Bioprinting

Abstract

Abstract Background: A new three-dimensional printing technology called “bioadditive production” or “bioprinting” is created with the long term goal to produce human tissues and organs for surgical therapy and transplants. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the existing literature on bioprinting and to demonstrate how digital information is transformed into biological models that imitate actual organs. Research methodology/approach: The paper surveys the applications of bioprinting by presenting recent developments and limitations of bioprinting reported in the scientific literature. We start from the objectives and goals of bioprinting, and then we review the new materials with specific and critical properties for bioprinting as well as applications in tissue engineering, organs-on-chips, articular cartilage regeneration, periodontal regeneration and surgical specialties. Findings: Numerous trials and studies are still ongoing and even if adoption of 3D printing has been slow in the biosciences to date, the potential is vast. With the support of 3D printers, almost everything will be manufactured in the future in laboratories and factories, and it is possible to produce also components of the human body. A desideratum of current research is the creation of thicker bioprints that have the functionality of living tissue, by bioprinting of “microfluidic channels” that can temporarily take over the function of natural capillaries. The limitations that prevent bioprinting application in usual clinical practice include suboptimal accuracy, unsatisfactory mechanical properties of bioprinted materials, long processing duration and relatively high cost.