3D Human Skin Bioprinting: A View from the Bio Side

Abstract

Based on the 3D printing technologies and the concepts developed in tissue engineering during the last decades, 3D bioprinting is emerging as the most innovative and promising technology for the generation of human tissues and organs. In the case of skin bioprinting, thanks to the research process carried out during the last years, interfollicular skin has been printed with a structural and functional quality that paves the way for clinical and industrial applications. This review analyzes the present achievements and the future improvements that this area must bring about if bioprinted skin is to become widely used. We have made an effort to integrate the technological and the biological/biomedical sides of the subject.

Scaffolding Strategies for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Applications

“…Compared with non-biological 3D printing, technical challenges related to the sensitivity of living cells to the shear stress during the bioprinting process can be found [151], which requires the integration of knowledge in the fields of engineering, biomaterials science, cell biology, and physics. Bioprinting techniques have already been proposed for the fabrication of 3D hydrogel-based structures, envisioning several tissue transplantations or substitutions, including skin [152], bone [153], vascular grafts [154], intervertebral disc (IVD) [102], meniscus, and cartilage [155]. More recently, the development of high-throughput in vitro platforms of healthy and diseased tissues of the human body came to address the TE field to a different level of precision medicine [156], and the 3D bioprinted hydrogels emerged as highly precise biomimetic matrices [157].…”

Contraction of fibrin‐derived matrices and its implications for in vitro human skin bioengineering

“…These bilayered skin grafts have been successfully used to treat burns, as well as traumatic and surgical wounds in a large number of patients in Spain and for the generation of skin‐humanized mouse models (Guerrero‐Aspizua et al, 2010; Llames et al, 2004; Llames et al, 2006; Martinez‐Santamaria et al, 2013). Our lab has also developed a complete system (printer and bioinks) to 3D print this bilayered skin for clinical and commercial testing purposes (Cubo, Garcia, del Canizo, Velasco, & Jorcano, 2016; Velasco, Quílez, Garcia, del Cañizo, & Jorcano, 2018). In general, these skin substitutes formed by two layers, representing the dermis and the epidermis, were generated following the method developed in (Meana et al, 1998).…”

Lidocaine-Loaded Solid Lipid Microparticles (SLMPs) Produced from Gas-Saturated Solutions for Wound Applications

“…Following the 3Rs principles and with the rise of the biomedical engineering discipline, several in vitro artificial skin models with attractive versatility and reproducibility are being commercialized or under development to reflect the three-dimensional environment of human native skin and the in vivo drug release conditions through the skin barrier [ 39 ]. 3D-bioprinting has emerged as an ideal technology to design more complex artificial skin models under automatized and standardized protocols able to mimic the native skin in a more reproducible manner [ 40 ]. The versatility of 3D-bioprinting has high translational and clinical relevance, since this technology can be exploited to produce not only full-thickness healthy skin, but also damaged skin under different pathological situations like acute and chronic wounds [ 41 ].…”