Progress in organ 3D bioprinting

Abstract

Three dimensional (3D) printing is a hot topic in today's scientific, technological and commercial areas. It is recognized as the main field which promotes "the Third Industrial Revolution". Recently, human organ 3D bioprinting has been put forward into equity market as a concept stock and attracted a lot of attention. A large number of outstanding scientists have flung themselves into this field and made some remarkable headways. Nevertheless, organ 3D bioprinting is a sophisticated manufacture procedure which needs profound scientific/technological backgrounds/knowledges to accomplish. Especially, large organ 3D bioprinting encounters enormous difficulties and challenges. One of them is to build implantable branched vascular networks in a predefined 3D construct. At present, organ 3D bioprinting still in its infancy and a great deal of work needs to be done. Here we briefly overview some of the achievements of 3D bioprinting technologies in large organ, such as the bone, liver, heart, cartilage and skin, manufacturing.Keywords: organ; 3D bioprinting; bone; heart; liver; cartilage; skin

Tissue Engineering in Liver Regenerative Medicine: Insights into Novel Translational Technologies

“…Different types of 3D bio-printing technologies have been introduced so far, including ink-jet-based bio-printing [71], laser-assisted bio-printing [72], extrusion-based bio-printing [73], stereo-lithography-based bio-printing [74] and microvalve-based bio-printing [75] and many other novel emerging technologies [76] (Table 2). Among these technologies, probably extrusion-based bio-printing has been the most widely used one to construct living 3D tissues and organs [77]. The first report using bio-printer was launched by Klebe in 1988, in which biomaterials such as collagen and fibronectin were printed while the hydrogel contained fibroblasts [78].…”

“…Furthermore, this technology could preserve ex vivo hepatocyte function and maintenance [71]. Also, thanks to the multi-nozzle 3D bio-printers and novel biocompatible polymers, the artificial organs could be more similar to the original tissue compartments [77].…”

Advanced Polymers for Three-Dimensional (3D) Organ Bioprinting

“…The first pertinent fibrin 3D bioprinting was reported in 2007, in which fibrinogen was used as an additive of gelatin-based bioinks [105,106]. By blending fibrinogen with thermoresponsive gelatin solutions, high-resolution 3D constructs with excellent cell viability (i.e., ≈ 100%) have been obtained.…”

Bioprinting

“…Inkjet printing is a non-contact method of fabrication, which limits the risk of contamination during printing. Scaffolds are constructed using the deposition of droplets and can achieve excellent resolution ranging between 20 and 100 μm [9][10][11]. Droplets are ejected from a printhead via thermal, piezoelectric or microvalve processes.…”