3D Bioprinting for Organ Regeneration

Abstract

Regenerative medicine holds the promise of engineering functional tissues or organs to heal or replace abnormal and necrotic tissues/organs, offering hope for filling the gap between organ shortage and transplantation needs. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is evolving into an unparalleled bio-manufacturing technology due to its high-integration potential for patient-specific designs, precise and rapid manufacturing capabilities with high resolution, and unprecedented versatility. It enables precise control over multiple compositions, spatial distributions, and architectural accuracy/complexity, therefore achieving effective recapitulation of microstructure, architecture, mechanical properties, and biological functions of target tissues and organs. Here we provide an overview of recent advances in 3D bioprinting technology, as well as design concepts of bioinks suitable for the bioprinting process. We focus on the applications of this technology for engineering living organs, focusing more specifically on vasculature, neural networks, the heart and liver. We conclude with current challenges and the technical perspective for further development of 3D organ bioprinting.

3D bioprinting for cardiovascular regeneration and pharmacology

“…Among the innovative manufacturing techniques that have been developed, 3D printing enables precise control over multiple compositions, spatial distributions, and architectural accuracy/complexity [16]. It is this notable control over the printing process that allows for the effective replication of native structural features, mechanical properties, and even functions of targeted tissues [16–19].…”

“…It is this notable control over the printing process that allows for the effective replication of native structural features, mechanical properties, and even functions of targeted tissues [16–19]. 3D scanners, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, and other imaging technologies, as well as computer-aided design (CAD) software, are employed to collect, draw, and digitize the complex structural information of native tissues in order to create 3D printable files, (typically stereolithography (STL) files) [16,20].…”

“…It is this notable control over the printing process that allows for the effective replication of native structural features, mechanical properties, and even functions of targeted tissues [16–19]. 3D scanners, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, and other imaging technologies, as well as computer-aided design (CAD) software, are employed to collect, draw, and digitize the complex structural information of native tissues in order to create 3D printable files, (typically stereolithography (STL) files) [16,20]. Based on a highly precise, layer-by-layer building process, 3D printing techniques have been utilized to create patient-specific models for cardiovascular surgeons to visualize anatomical structures, thus facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of tissue abnormalities and promoting better surgical procedures [21–23].…”

Nanomaterial‐Enabled Wearable Sensors for Healthcare

“…Direct spinning of CNTs onto a substrate or into yarns [53][54][55] and electrospinning of nanofibers or NWs were reported to produce fiber-like nanomaterials. [56][57][58][59] In addition, novel direct printing or writing techniques [60,61] such as inkjet printing, [62] gravure printing, [63,64] screen printing, [65][66][67] nozzle jet printing, [26] and direct writing [68,69] enabled the fabrication of wearable sensors that possess complex patterns with high resolution.…”

3D Miniaturization of Human Organs for Drug Discovery

“…Further, within those engineered 3D cultures, environments can be precisely organized in arrayed forms to allow high-throughput drug screening. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Such 3D engineered relevant human models may advantageously replace the basic 2D screening platforms and current preclinical animal models. Indeed, 3D model advantages include involvement of high-ordered regulation of environmental clues, short period/low-cost for model development, reliable tuning of multiple parameters and wide range of analysis as 2D models ( Figure 1).…”