Abstract
The field of Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that work toward creating functional tissue-constructs mimicking native tissue for repair and/or replacement of damaged tissues or whole organs have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. However, traditional tissue engineering approaches comprising of scaffolds, growth factors and cells showed limited success in fabrication of complex 3D shapes and in vivo organ regeneration leading to their non-feasibility for clinical applications from a logistical and economical viewpoint. In this regard, 3D bioprinting, which is an extended application of additive manufacturing is now being explored for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as it involves the top-down approach of building the complex tissue in a layer by layer fashion, thereby producing precise geometries due to controlled nature of matter deposition with the help of anatomically accurate 3D models of the tissue generated by computer graphics. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of the 3D bioprinting technology along with associated 3D bioprinting strategies including ink-jet printing, extrusion printing, stereolithography and laser assisted bioprinting techniques. We then focus on the applications of 3D bioprinting technology on construction of various representative tissue and organs, including skin, cardiac, bone and cartilage etc. We further attempt to highlight the steps involved in each of those tissues/organs printing and discuss on the associated technological requirements based on the available reports from recent literature. We finally conclude with current challenges with 3D bioprinting technology along with potential solution for future technological advancement of efficient and cost-effective 3D bioprinting methods.
Introduction
Tissue damage and degeneration is a rather common phenomenon among humans; however, the regenerating capabilities of human body are rather insufficient to deal with this trauma. The traditional methods for treating these conditions is dependent upon tissue or organ transplantation which is again dependent upon the availability of a donor which can be rather scarce and comes with the risk of graft rejection due to immune response. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are rapidly evolving fields that work toward solving these issues (). Additive manufacturing is one of the most advanced techniques that has been utilized in this area of tissue engineering. It encompasses the principles of material science with biology for the fabrication of organ and tissue framework (; ). Its primary objective is the restoration of damaged tissues or organs, with its fundamental goal being to emulate the native complexity of biological tissue (cellular niche) that will aid in the cell differentiation and tissue regeneration. Traditionally, this process requires the formation of an interphase between cell, scaffolds and growth factors. Scaffolds can provide the base on which cells can grow under the influence of growth factors (Satpathy et al., 2019). However, this process is rather random in nature and does not allow for a specific customized 3D distribution of cells or matrix (), in addition to being time consuming and less efficient. This leads to their non-feasibility for clinical applications from a logistical and economical viewpoint (Singh and Williams, 2008). With this regard, additive manufacturing is now being explored for tissue engineering as it involves the top-down approach of building the complex tissue in a layer by layer fashion, thereby producing precise geometries due to controlled nature of matter deposition with the help of anatomically accurate 3D models of the tissue generated by computer graphics ().
3D bioprinting is an extended application of AM that involves building a tissue or organ layer-by-layer using bottoms-up approach. The aim of 3D bioprinting is to somehow mimic the natural cellular architecture by depositing materials and cells in a particular fashion which can restore the normal structure and functionality of complex tissues. In 3D bioprinting, cells or biomolecules are printed directly onto a substrate in a specific pattern such that the cells can hold together to form the required 3D construct (Xiongfa et al., 2018). Bioprinting deals with the living entities such as cells, tissues, etc., hence the modalities associated with the living tissues has to be observed in it, such as biocompatibility of the material being used, cell sensitivity to the printing methods, growth factor delivery and perfusion etc. (). Since the whole process is automated, it can give precise patterning of cells with controlled ECM organization. Because of the layer-by-layer construction of the bio printed tissues, they possess interconnected pores which are ideal for perfusion of gas and nutrients, as well as inter- and intra-cellular communications (). These bio-printed tissues with improved intercellular communications can give a decent reference to in vivo physiology. Such a result can contribute toward the data obtained during pre-clinical trials, since animal model is not sufficiently equipped to predict human pathophysiological responses (Shanks et al., 2009).
One of the foremost requirements for 3D bioprinting is bioink. It is composite made up of biomaterials, cells, and other required components (). The technology can be used for fabrication of functional human tissue or organ such as heart, liver, skin, bones etc., along with generating microfluidic models of organs-on-a-chip in the near future (). However, despite these advantages and convenience offered by the 3D bioprinting, the state-of-the-art technology involves several challenges such as vascularization of the tissue, gas and nutrient exchange, biocompatibility and biodegradability of the material that is used as substrate, shape-fidelity and preservation of functionality of the printed tissue (Xu et al., 2012). To this effect, synthetic and natural polymers such as alginate, gelatin, collagen, Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Hydroxyapatite etc., because of their biocompatible nature and controllable physio-chemical properties that can be modified to suit the ECM structure and formation (Tevlek and Aydin, 2017; ).
This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the 3D Bioprinting Process along with the different strategies involved in it such as ink-jet printing, extrusion printing, stereolithography and laser assisted bioprinting techniques. 3D Bioprinting is a very versatile technique which can be used for printing of complete organs. Here, we have tried to present an overview of bioprinting of skin tissue, cardiac tissue, bone and cartilage and to highlight the technological requirements and challenges associated with their bioprinting. The review outlines the process of bioprinting of the above tissues and the direction in which the current research is heading. The state-of-the-art literature in this field is concerned with narrow applications of the bioprinting technique. Hence, there was a need to present a comprehensive account of the requirements and procedures of different types of tissue in one place. This review aims to focus at different strategies applied toward bioprinting of natural and synthetic polymers as well their applications in different types of tissue engineering with respect to 3D printing of various tissue models such as bone, skin, cardiac and cartilage tissues etc. This allows us to acknowledge the difference between the procedure and technological requirements as the tissue type varies from soft tissue such as skin to the hard tissue such as bone and cartilage.
3D Bioprinting Strategies
The procedure of 3D printing is based on the exact layering of biomaterials. Briefly, the process follows a general outline in the form of three basic steps: Preparatory phase, Printing phase and Post-handling. Preparatory phase is the designing of anatomically accurate 3D models via computer graphics software such as CAD/CAM and rendering it into stack of 2D layers of user-demarcated thickness which will be fed into the bioprinter for printing. This step also included the material or bio-ink selection. The processing step involves the actual printing of the tissues by additive manufacturing techniques. Post-processing refers to the maturation of the fabricated construct in a bioreaction and it’s structural and functional characterization (). The flow-diagram given in Figure 1 gives an overview of the bioprinting process and the steps involved in it.
FIGURE 1
Bioprinting can be done either scaffold-based or scaffold free. In the scaffold based method, the biomaterial matrix forms the stratum for cellular deposition. This matrix can be hydrogel, nanofibers or films or any other 3D construct onto which the bioink can be patterned. Here, it is important to note that the 3D construct should closely mimic the native ECM environment such that it allows cells to grow and proliferate. In comparison, scaffold-free bioprinting involves direct deposition of cell or tissue aggregates in the form of spheroids, honeycomb, cylinder etc. The higher numbers of cells are expected to initiate ECM deposition on its own in the confined space of 3D print mold (). The whole process involves loading the tissue spheroids into pipettes and then depositing it into printing molds via extrusion mechanism. The cells secrete their own ECM and form a network leading to maturation of the tissue and finally the mold is removed. The mold is just used as a supporting material and is itself not utilized. This method allows for the freeing up of cells from biomaterial that limit cellular interaction and slow down the cell growth. Self-organization of cells increases ECM production and preserves the tissue functionality (). Several kinds of additive manufacturing techniques have been developed for selective patterning of cells and biomaterials for fabrication of viable tissue constructs such as inkjet based 3D bioprinting (), extrusion based 3D bioprinting (), laser assisted 3D bioprinting (), and stereolithographic based 3D bioprinting () etc. Each of these 3D bioprinting techniques has been summarized in the following sections.
Inkjet Based 3D Bioprinting
This method employs the use of “bioink,” which is simply a low-viscosity suspension biomaterial along with viable cells etc. that can be deposited over a “bio paper” such as hydrogel substrate, culture dish or a polymer construct etc. This AM technique is a non-contact printing technique, where the printing takes place in a digitally controlled pattern. Ink-jet printing can be done in two basic ways, either in a continuous manner (continuous ink-jet printing) or in a drop-on-demand (DOD) fashion. In the continuous ink-jet printing, a continuous jet of droplets is created by applying pressure on the bioink which forces it out of a nozzle. Electric field is then applied which deflects this jet of bio-ink onto the substrate. The excess droplets which do not form the required pattern are deflected toward a gutter where they are collected for reuse. In drop-on-demand inkjet printing, the method employed for creating droplets is similar to CIJ, with the difference that the droplets are produced only on demand. A pressure pulse is hence used to force out the droplets instead of a continuous pressure. Bioprinting is better suited to DOD approach of printing because of its pulsed nature, since in CIJ approach, the ink that is not deflected onto the substrate is recirculated through the printer, thereby posing a risk of contamination. Other reason that CIJ is not particularly suitable for bioprinting is the need for conductive ink (). On the basis of droplet instigation mechanism, the DOD printing mechanism can be categorized into piezoelectric and thermal ink-jet printing. Thermal DOP utilizes pulsed electric current to a heating element. This heating element quickly vaporizes ink droplets in the microfluidic chamber and ink droplet is pushed onto the substrate through the nozzle orifice because of the pressure created by the vapor bubble. The cells are exposed to only a few microseconds of high temperature, hence they do not rise too much above the ambient temperature and thus remain viable (). Piezoelectric DOD employs a piezoelectric transducer in the microfluidic chamber above the nozzle. Similar to thermal DOD, in this also pulsed voltage is applied to the transducer which creates the transient pressure for droplet actuation. The ability of the bioink to be printed is governed by the rheological properties of the ink in both forms of printing mechanisms. While the actual requirements for the ink differs depending upon the system, in general a typical viscosity requirement is 30 mPa/s (). Droplet size is also affected by other attributes such as nozzle size, substrate to nozzle distance, temperature gradient in case of thermal DOD, piezo-deformation characteristics of the transducer in case of piezoelectric DOD as well as the frequency of the current applied. This technique has already been effectively used for mammalian cell printing and patterning in addition to DNA () and proteins ().
Inkjet printing is particularly advantageous because of its cheap and non-contact nature which reduces the chances of contamination (). Recently, Xu and his team developed vascular like alginate tubes with a hemi branching point using drop-on-demand inkjet printing, by utilizing a platform assisted 3D inkjet bioprinting device (Xu et al., 2012). A major characteristic of ink-jet printing is its ability to allow the formation of complex multicellular patterns and constructs by simultaneous printing of multiple cell types, biomaterials etc., in a single-fabrication operation by using different printheads. The evolution of 3D printing of tissues and organs started with the ink-jet bioprinting only. Cell bioprinting has been done by both thermal and piezoelectric DOD printers have been explored for cell bioprinting as depicted in Figure 2 (), however thermal ink-jet printers have been more preferred ().
FIGURE 2
Extrusion Based 3D Bioprinting
Extrusion based bioprinting can be done by Direct ink writing (DIW) or pressure-assisted bioprinting methods as shown in Figure 3 (You et al., 2017). Direct ink writing is a material extrusion process in which the apparatus continuously extrudes material out of the nozzle, generating 3D architectures layer-by-layer. Suitable materials for DIW should possess specific rheological properties, which enable easy printability. The material should be shear thinning to enable extrusion out of the printing nozzle. It should also possess a shear yield stress. To induce flow, a shear stress above the yield stress of the resin is applied. Subsequently, the shear stress is released, and the resin recovers its rigidity when placed on a substrate. Polymer resins are commonly blended with fillers, e.g., silica particles or nano-clay to achieve desired rheological properties. The fillers induce shear thinning flow behavior and at optimal resin/filler compositions they can afford a material which possesses a shear yield stress. These rheological properties enable shape retention of the printed object, rendering self-standing structures (Truby and Lewis, 2016). Alternative solidifying processes include subsequent UV-curing of the printed layer, thermal cure or extrusion into a support bath. The latter holds the printed structure in place until the deposited ink is converted into a solid. This process is often called “freeform reversible embedding” (FRE) or embedded 3D printing (e-3D printing). Angelini et al. recently described this concept in detail and provided an overview of the required rheological properties of the support material (
FIGURE 3

Schematic diagram of extrusion based 3D bioprinting. In extrusion based 3D bioprinting, application of pressure on bioink is optional (You et al., 2017) (used from an open access journal).
Traditional scaffolding processes such as solvent casting, electrospinning and salt-leaching, etc., lack the controlled pore architecture that is obtained from the CAD/CAM controlled additive manufacturing processes. To remedy this, pressure-assisted deposition has been used traditionally. Polymers such as Polycaprolactone (PCL), Polylactide (PLA), etc., and their blends or composites with ceramics such as tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and Hydroxyapatite (HAP) have been the focus for design and optimization of scaffolds by these processes (Xiong et al., 2001;
Laser Assisted 3D Bioprinting or Laser Induced Forward Transfer
A pulsed laser beam is utilized in this process for deposition of bio-ink including cells onto a substrate. Utilization of laser for deposition of materials provides a non-contact direct writing process for 3D printing. As is visible in Figure 4 (
FIGURE 4

Schematic representation of laser assisted 3D bioprinting (
On the other hand, laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) based technique was originally proposed by using a high-energy laser pulse for direct writing of metal features on an optically transparent substrate by direct deposition of it. This technique was extended for printing of biomolecules in the form of AFA-LIFT and BioLP (
Stereolithographic Based 3D Bioprinting
Stereolithographic method of bioprinting as depicted in Figure 5 (
FIGURE 5

Schematic representation of stereolithographic 3D bioprinting (
Stereolithographic method has been admirably used in tissue engineering for fabrication of biocompatible scaffold in which resins help to prevent inflammatory responses during implantation as well good degradability with nontoxic by-products that results absolute renal clearance with tissue regeneration.
Some of the key features and applications of the above described 3D bioprinting processes are mentioned in Table 1 given below.
TABLE 1
| 3D bioprinting strategies | Description | Cells involved | Biomaterials | Result | Advantages | Disadvantages | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inkjet based 3D bioprinting | Expulsion of successive drops of bioink on a substrate under thermal, piezoelectric or electromagnetic effect | Neonatal human dermal fibroblasts and epidermal keratinocytes, dermal microvascular endothelial cells, human chondrocytes | Collagen, thrombin, fibrinogen, poly (ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDMA) | Better wound contraction, enhanced tissue integration due to direct printing onto the femoral condyle defects | Easily available, cheap and high-speed technique | Lack of precision, low viscosity bioink is required | ( |
| Extrusion based 3D bioprinting | Expulsion of bioink through a nozzle under mechanical or pneumatic forces | Human fibroblasts, human keratinocytes, chondrocytes, HUVECs, MSCs | GelMA, alginate PLA fibers, hyaluronic acid, gelatin, glycerol, fibrinogen, PU, collagen | Patient specific tissue construct for reconstruction of facial wounds, cartilage reconstruction, 3D printing of endothelialized-myocardium-on-a chip | High viscosity bioink can be used and cells can be printed in greater density | Cell structure may be distorted because of undue stress during printing | ( |
| Laser assisted 3D bioprinting | A laser pulse is used to vaporize bioink and cell suspension placed at the bottom of the ribbon, which is then propelled on to the receiving substrate | HUVECs, mouse fibroblasts, human keratinocytes, MSCs | Human osseous cell sheets, collagen, nanohydroxyapatite (nHA) | Self-assembled cell sheets in a tubular structure were obtained for soft tissue regeneration, bone and skin graft | High degree of precision and resolution | Expensive and time-consuming technique | ( |
| Stereolithography based 3D bioprinting | Photocurable bioink is cured in a layered manner by means of light | MCF-7 breast cancer cell, HUVECs, C2C12 skeletal muscle cells, osteoblasts, fibroblasts, mesenchymal cells, BrCa and MSCs | PEGDA and GelMA, GelMAandnHA | High cell viability and promoted growth of BrCa by macromolecules secreted by MSCs leading to successful model for post-metastatic breast cancer progression investigation in bone | High degree of accuracy in fabrication with low printing time | Lengthy post-processing, highly complicated process | (Zhou et al., 2016; |
Comparative summary of different 3D bioprinting processes.
Organ Regeneration via 3D Bioprinting Techniques
3D Bioprinting of Skin Tissue
As depicted in Figure 6 (Varkey et al., 2019), human skin has evolved into a complex structure with epidermis and dermis forming a major part and subcutaneous tissue forming the third region. Such a structure serves to protect the body from exposure to UV rays, prevents drying of skin as well as acts as barrier preventing the entry of toxins, pathogens etc. to the body. Skin is also known as first line of defense in the immune system (Vijayavenkataraman et al., 2016). The upper layer of epidermis is predominantly made up of keratinocytes which are arranged in keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. The growth of epidermis is from inwards to outwards, with the mature cells at the surface, and the proliferating keratinocytes at the bottom, in the basal layer. This basement membrane also acts as separation between epidermis and dermis. The proliferative cells undergo through differentiation in a sequential manner with the newer, undifferentiated cells at the bottom and terminally differentiated cells toward the outside in stratum corneum. Protection from UV rays is a function of melanin that is secreted by melanocytes. It is also responsible for skin pigmentation that gives the skin its characteristic color (Swope et al., 2002). Other cells in the epidermis include nerve endings and glandular ducts as well as cells of immune system such as Langerhans cells and T-cells. The second layer of skin, i.e., dermis is also made up of two layers; the upper papillary dermis which consist of loose, areolar connective tissue and consists of dermal papillae that protrude through the epidermis creating ridges in it that leave fingerprint while sweating, and the lower reticular dermis which is made up of dense, irregular connective tissue (
FIGURE 6

Diagram of human skin structure (Varkey et al., 2019) (used from an open access journal).
Because of the robustness of skin and its vitality, the creation of a skin construct in lab becomes of great importance. One of the earliest innovations in this field is creation of artificial skin grafting, that can act as bandage for wound and burn healing. Reconstruction of functional skin tissue by bioprinting has been approached by several research groups till date (
Steps Involved in 3D Bioprinting of Skin Tissue
The whole process of skin bioprinting consists of four major steps; the first of which includes cell and biomaterials selection. This process is known as pre-processing, and is followed by the actual printing process. The printing process is followed by post-processing step that includes cell proliferation and maturation of printed skin construct. The final step in human skin bioprinting is the characterization of the printed tissue and its functional evaluation. The cells for printing process are obtained from skin biopsy, and then these are expanded via cell culture methods. The bio-ink is prepared by an amalgamation of cells and supporting biomaterials. The cells for bioprinting can be either primary cells, if the donor has healthy skin, or they can be stem cells if the donor has injured skin. Stem cell sources can differ on a case to case basis and range from adipose to mesenchymal as well as prenatal cells. Clinical images of the damaged area can be obtained by imaging techniques such as nuclear imaging techniques like PET, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc. These images can then be used as input to design anatomically accurate models of the functional tissue in the form of STL files using CAD/CAM graphic interphase (
Bioinks for 3D Bioprinting of Skin Tissue
The bio-ink that is chosen for the printing purpose should possess the desired biomechanical properties that will aid in deposition of ink in the patterns as specified in the STL file created by CAD modeling. This is essential as bio-ink facilitates the necessary cell-ECM interactions as well as affect the cell growth and proliferation. Bio-ink should be biocompatible and must support the morphology and function of the fabricated skin tissue construct. It should be able to facilitate cell differentiation as per the functionality required of it (Varkey et al., 2018). The choice of biomaterials for bio-inks can vary from natural polymers such as alginate, gelatin, collagen, hyaluronic acid, etc. to the man-made polymers like poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), Polyethylene Glycol (PEG), Polycaprolactone (PCL), etc., or it can be a hybrid blend of natural and synthetic biomaterials (
TABLE 2
| Materials | Cell type | Bioprinting technique | Outcome | Key findings | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collagen type I | NIH-3T3, HaCaT, HFF-1 | Extrusion based bioprinting, laser assisted bioprinting | Cell proliferation and differentiation resembles native tissue | This bioprinted model can lead to the production of wound grafts, transdermal as well as topical formulation tool and fruitful therapeutics for different autoimmune disease model | ( |
| Alginate/gelatin | AECs, WJMSCs, NIH3T3 fibroblasts; HaCaT keratinocytes | Extrusion based bioprinting, Laser assisted bioprinting | WJMSCs showed a better fibroblastic phenotype along with an angiogenic potential while AECs could differentiate into epithelial cells | It is an encouraging technique of tissue replacement ex vivo and is equally important in the field of cardiac tissue or valves application as well as burn tissue replacements | ( |
| Plasma derived fibrin | Human fibroblasts; human keratinocytes | Extrusion based bioprinting | A wellformed, orthokeratotic stratum corneum was present indicating terminal differentiation in the tissue construct. Bioprinted skin shows well-developed stratum corneum and a basal membrane | Using this method normal human skin can be developed in laboratory at a cost effective way that is suitable for using clinically and commercially | ( |
| Polycaprolact one (PCL) (mesh) | Human primary dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) and human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) | Hybrid 3D cell-printing system (extrusion based and inkjet-based dispensing modules) | Uniform distribution of keratinocytes, stratified epidermis and stabilized fibroblast-stretched dermis layers after 14 days | ICBS or integrated composite tissues/organs building systems was first developed by them that allows using of extrusion-based and inkjet-based dispension modules simultaneously and produce skin model which is indistinguishable from native skin. It also offers a cost effective technique as well as less amount of medium in transwell culture | ( |
| PEG-based bioink | Human primary dermal fibroblasts; human primary epidermal keratinocytes, NIH/3T3 and keratinocyte | Extrusion based bioprinting | When primary human dermal keratinocytes were placed on the top of dermal equivalent epidermis-like structures were formed | This skin-like soft tissue model has a potential application in cosmetic industry and drug development study where skin models are often needed for testing. It is also used in regenerative medicine production as well as larger tissue generation due to having the presence of vasculature system | (Rimann et al., 2016) |
Comparative summary of different 3D bioprinting techniques used in skin tissue regeneration.
3D Bioprinting of Cardiac Tissue
One of the major causes of mortality in terms of worldwide diseases are Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), especially in the developed countries. An approximate estimation of total incidences of myocardial infarction per year gives a figure of about eight million. Other disease conditions such as stenosis etc., affect heart valves (
Formation of a functional cardiac construct is a challenging endeavor because of the complexity of cardiac tissue which requires the integration of cells from multiple stem cell sources such as cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. The difficulty also arises in attaining the auto-rhythmic nature of myocardium (Vunjak-Novakovic et al., 2010). 3D bioprinting can be useful in overcoming these challenges. It is capable of building a functional cardiac construct in a layer-by-layer approach. Multiple efforts have been made for restoration of functional myocardium via 3D printing in biomaterials such as scaffolds or tissues-on a-chip.
Steps Involved in 3D Bioprinting of Cardiac Tissue
Similar to the skin bioprinting, cardiac bioprinting also involves the pre-processing, actual printing and post-processing steps. The first step in the bioprinting of functional cardiac construct is the creation of a 3D model via graphic modeling interphases such as CAD/CAM by utilizing the clinical imaging data from MRI and CT scans as input. High fidelity models can be obtained by medical imaging techniques such as nuclear imaging techniques like PET, Computed tomography (CT) scan, volumetric 3D echocardiography etc. which can provide volumetric images (
Bioink for 3D Bioprinting of Cardiac Tissue
Similar to the bio-inks for skin bioprinting, cardiac bioprinting also requires some of the features in the ink such as the spatial control of hydrogel deposition by means of formation of stable filaments with gentle cross-linking mechanisms. Maintenance of cell viability is a major pre-requisite of bio-inks for cardiac bioprinting. Natural and synthetic polymers with capability to form hydrogels gelatin, collagen, hyaluronic acid, etc. are preferred for bio-ink formation (Tomov et al., 2019). The actual process of cardiac bioprinting can be done either with scaffold or without scaffold. When the printing is done with scaffold, then the scaffold itself can be pre-printed and thereafter cells can be seeded onto it scaffold and cells can be printed simultaneously, whereas in scaffold free process, direct printing of biomolecules and cells on the substrate (
TABLE 3
| Materials | Cell type | Bioprinting technique | Outcome | Key findings | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alginate | iPSC-derived CMs, HUVECs | Extrusion based bioprinting/droplet/Inkjet based bioprinting | Although having conduits with higher alginate concentration it deals with lower cell viability, porosity, capacity of permeability and reduced degradation process | The bioprinted endothelial cells prevent cell death and support regeneration by restoring blood flow through revascularization. | ( |
| Gelatin | Bone marrow derived hMSCs, neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (CMs) | Extrusion based bioprinting | Higher cell viability, increase in elastic modulus with increase in polymer concentration, biocompatible, good printability | This method represents some advantages over conventional techniques like, it is completely made up of biocompatible and natural bioink so can be printed simply. Also the construct and pattern can be modified according to flexibility. | (Tijore et al., 2018) |
| Fibrin | Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC), neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes, human aortic smooth muscle cells | Extrusion based bioprinting | Good cell migration, and vascularization with significant adhesion, gelation, biocompatible and viable property but having low mechanical strength | As the construct possess highly customizable structure, it offers many applications in the field of cell-cell interaction, testing of several drugs and various disease modeling. The bioprinting method also has a major function in regenerative medicine and pharmaceutical application | ( |
| Hyaluronic acid | Human fetal CMPCs | Extrusion based bioprinting/inkjet based bioprinting | Long-term in vivo survival and engraftment of hCMPCs supported by matrix with biodegradability and biocompatibility along with high cell proliferation and viability and significant printability but having lower mechanical strength | The patch offers a marked reduction in adverse remodeling and can properly preserve cardiac functioning | ( |
| PEG | iPSC-derived CMs, HUVECs | Extrusion based bioprinting | Extrudable ECM hydrogels prepared from PEG derivatives are biocompatible for tubular tissue construct printing and also the preparation is easy | This bioprinted method allows to perfectly customizing the deposition of 3D spatial structure and assured a high printing fidelity and resolution | ( |
| PCL framework reinforced into the decellularized ECM | Human iPSCs, human c-kit + cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs) | Extrusion based bioprinting/Droplet based bioprinting | Organized spatial pattern and tissue specific gene pattern was observed. Also, it is biocompatible and do not produce any immune reaction. It possess good mechanical strength, printability and can synchronized with grafted tissue easily. It also has a significant cell viability, cell adhesion, and maturation | It offers spatial patterning for the promotion of vascularization rapidly and uses hdECM bioink for potentiating delivered cells | ( |
Comparative summary of different 3D bioprinting techniques used in cardiac tissue regeneration.
3D Bioprinting of Cartilage Tissue
Articular cartilage, a unique smooth and white tissue that covers the end of the bones, has a complex structure made up of several biomolecules like collagen, proteoglycans and non-collagenase proteins. The structure is fabricated by chondrocytes embedded in an extracellular matrix. Though it can tolerate high amount of intensive and repetitive physical stress and often lasts lifetime, it can be degraded by a variety of mechanical, chemical and microbiological agents, leads to several disabling injuries. But due to avascular nature of the cartilage tissue as well as lacking of lymphatic and nervous system in it, any injury caused by trauma or excessive stress cannot be regenerated and finally results several degenerative diseases, like-Osteoarthritis (OA) and ultimately reduces the quality of life (
FIGURE 7

Representation of the morphology and structure of H&E stained hyaline cartilage schematically (SB, subchondral bone; CZ, calcified zone; DZ, deep zone; MZ, middle zone; SZ, superficial zone) (
Steps Involved in 3D Bioprinting of Cartilage Tissue
3D-bioprinting of cartilage tissue involves six important steps including i) Imaging analysis, ii) Replacement tissue designing, iii) Preparation of material, iv) Preparation of cell, v) Bioprinting, vi) Implantation. The primary step in 3D cartilage Bioprinting is medical image generation by extracting target patient-specific structure through clinical imaging techniques like MRI/CT scans, etc., sorted and digitalized by computer graphics software like CAD/CAM. Drilling and sawing at a patient-specific manner help orthopedic personnel to the pedicle screws placements and replacement of total joint, respectively (
Bioink for 3D Bioprinting of Cartilage Tissue
Selection of suitable bioink on the basis of composition and mechanical properties is of greatest importance for the viable cartilage substitutes development. These are being formulated from various natural polymers such as collagen, fibrin etc. along with artificial polymers like, polyethylene glycol (PEG), etc. (
TABLE 4
| Materials | Types of cells | Bioprinting technique | Outcome | Key findings | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Methylacrylatedgelatine (GelMa)/methylacrylated hyaluronic acid (HAMA) | Articular cartilage | Stereolithographic bioprinting | Recovery of chondrocyte differentiation status using GelMa and HAMA in vitro cartilage model with different cell concentration have been created | Gelatin and hyaluronic acid based bioprinted cartilage can be used in a patient-specific manner such as it can be utilized according to individual defects dimension | ( |
| Alginate sulfate/nanocellulose | Calves chondrocytes | Extrusion | Nanocellulose has a good printing property and the non-printable alginate sulfate helps cell spreading promotion and proliferation and synthesis of collagen II. | Alginate sulfate and nanocellulose based bioprinted cartilage provides better shape fidelity that helps to create 3D bioprinted structure with more cell viability and excellent printing resolution along with superior morphological structure, matrix deposition and more cell growth | ( |
| PEGDMA/articular chondrocytes of human | Human articular cartilage | Inkjet printing | This layer by layer construction provide mechanical strength as well as direct cartilage development | PEGDMA hydrogels offers a biocompatible environment in human chondrocytes for repairing cartilage in a layer-by-layer fashion, also provides maintenance for the viability of cells, biosynthetic and phenotypic functions | ( |
| Polycaprolactone (PCL)/alginate hydrogel | Chondrocytes | Inkjet printing | The construct shows negligible effects on chondrocytes viability as well as facilitates scaffold construction and growth factor deposition in a controllable way | This bioprinted construct provides a fine pretissue design and prevascularization that have a several application not only in the regenerative medicine field but also in drug screening and discovery and in the production of tissue model for cell biology | ( |
| Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)/alginate (A) and nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)/hyaluronic acid (HA) | Nasal septal cartilage chondrocytes | Inkjet printing | Marked increase in cartilaginous cell densities can be observed using these construct | The bioinks used in this bioprinting method provides proper support for cartilage production using iPSC. | ( |
Comparative summary of different 3D bioprinting techniques used in cartilage tissue regeneration.
3D Bioprinting of Bone Tissue
Bone is structurally complex, highly vascularized tissue in nature and is composed of a ceramic phase in a gel like matrix of protein and polysaccharides as described in Figure 8 (
FIGURE 8

Structure and components of bone (
Steps Involved in 3D Bioprinting of Bone Tissue
Bone bioprinting involves three successive phases viz., I) pre-processing, II) processing and III) post-processing phase. In first (pre-processing) phase, all of the requirements related to bio printed tissue formation will be planned. Anatomical structure analysis of targeted tissue following CAD for translating images into blue print of 3D bio printed tissue by using CT, MRI etc. data. Additional special programs related to software, e.g., AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS and CATIA are utilized to make the 3D bio printed tissue model in a layered fashion. Main construction is utilized in the next in processing phase by utilizing bioink composed of various growth factors, some cellular materials (ESCs, MSCs, iPSCs, etc.) and many cellular or synthetic materials can act as scaffold. The final step is the post-processing step that occurred in a bioreactor for full maturation and to make ready to be utilized appendage in vivo (
Bioink for 3D Bioprinting of Bone Tissue
Selection of Bio ink is crucial as it should be selected for specific cell types as well as for cytocompatibility and bio functionality. Many natural as well as synthetic materials have been utilized for bioink preparation in bone bioprinting. One of the studies describes gelatin based ink preparation cross-linked through Hydroxyapatite that can imitate the natural bone composition by significantly increasing the viscosity of the bioink. One of the issues with synthetic Hydroxyapatite is that it has comparatively lower osteogenic activity than living tissue (Bodhak et al., 2009). Functionality of hydroxyapatite can be increased to achieve higher osteointegration by doping it with ions such as Magnesium and Strontium (
TABLE 5
| Material | Types of cells | Bioprinting technique | Outcome | Key findings | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arg-Gly-Asp/polycaprolactone/alginate/PEGMA/GelMA | MSCs | Extrusion | Able to print defined structures as well as ECM in a three-dimension space | Using this biofabrication method it is possible to manufacture vertebral body supporting marrow cavity, trabecular-like bone and functional vasculature | ( |
| Poly (ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate/gelatin methacrylate/human MSCs | hMSCs | Inkjet | Showed good biocompatibility and maximum cell survival with induced mechanical support to the cells | Inkjet bioprinting using PEG-GelMa offers scaffolds and cells production in layer by layer fashion by skipping the extra encapsulating step | ( |
| Alginate/poly vinyl alcohol/hydroxyapatite | MC3T3-E1 | Extrusion | Used for treating personalized bone defects | Novel alginate-PVA-HA hydrogel plays an important role in printability, viscosity and cell viability of the formulation that results proper integrity and improved mechanical properties of the scaffolds | ( |
| PEG/PLGA | ihMSC | Extrusion | Mechanically strong construct production for bone repair along with inclusion of viable cells and active proteins | The PEG/PLGA bioprinted scaffolds overcome the issues related to post-fabrication of cell seeding and deposition of biomolecules by patterning biological contents within the structures to get more perfect architecture | (Sawkins et al., 2015) |
| Polylactide (PLA)/cell-laden gelatin methacrylate (GelMA)/BMP-2/VEGF | hMSCs | Stereolithography | Fabrication of vascularized bone structure with a hard mineral construct that mimic the natural bone | This exclusive bioprinting technology provides tissue regeneration at complicated and multicellular level by exerting control over cell organization, arrangement of bioactive factor, mechanical loading and microstructure construction | ( |
Comparative summary of different 3D bioprinting techniques used in bone tissue regeneration.
Current Challenges and Future Aspects of 3D Bioprinting Techniques
FDA has issued a guidance document for production of medical devices, “Technical considerations for Additive Manufactured Devices” that provides guidelines for the additive manufacturing including 3D printing. With the technological advancement in the printing technique and development of efficient and cost-effective printing methods, it becomes necessary to regulate the quality control standard before transplantation in each step during the process, such as while designing a model, selection of bioink, printing validation, maturation of post-printing and assessment of product quality (
FIGURE 9

Current challenges in 3D bioprinting techniques.
Today organ transplantation could be a lifesaving treatment choice but few people are available as donors. According to Organdonor.gov, 18 people die in the US everyday due to appropriate organ transplant. Therefore, this emerging 3D bioprinting technology could be an option for organ transplantations around the world and could end the heavy demand on organs. Future developments in bioprinting is expected to witness rapid developments in bioprinters which can be readily deployed in hospitals. The bioprinters will be expected to perform bioprinting with high resolution, mechanical strengths and cell viability. In addition, to obtain bioprinted constructs for clinical translation, it is necessary to integrate functional vasculature in the grafts to ensure long term cell survival (
FIGURE 10

Different bioprinted organs. 1) Skin construct includes 20 layers of keratinocytes and fibroblasts implanted into the wound Day 0 (at left) and Day 11 (at right) (
Conclusions
Additive manufacturing in the context of bioprinting offers a huge potential in the field of tissue and organ regeneration. It enables the fabrication of physiologically-relevant tissue with better and consistent functional outcomes in patients. Such techniques are advantageous over autografting or allografting considering autologous grafts cause unnecessary stress on the patient and there is an acute shortage of allograft donors. 3D bioprinting presents a unique opportunity in that it builds the tissue from bottom up and as such the risk of immunological graft rejection is not present all the while mitigating the issues related to donor scarcity. The use of 3D bioprinting could potentially lead to a personalized treatment for the patient which translates to better clinical outcomes as well as is aesthetically pleasing. However, despite all the advances that have been made in the field, there are still many challenges with regards to the biocompatibility and integration of the printed construct with the body. Maintenance of cell viability in the bio-ink formulation and then printing them in precise geometries requires standardization of the printing methods and meticulous quality-control to maintain the quality of the printed construct. To keep up with the demands of tissue engineering field, the technique for 3D bioprinting has evolved to present multiple approaches for tissue fabrication such as inkjet printing, laser assisted bioprinting, extrusion bioprinting, stereolithography, etc. Overall, 3D bioprinting techniques offer viable and high-throughput tissue printing with better spatial control and precise patterning of cells when compared to manual methods of tissue culture.
Funding
The authors would like to acknowledge the Ramalingaswami Re-Entry Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India (BT/RLF/Re-entry/13/2016) and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (PDF/2018/000182) for financial support.
Statements
Author contributions
The article was written, edited, and approved by SA, SS, VB, AP, AB, and SB.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest
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Summary
Keywords
additive manufacturing, 3D bioprinting methodologies, bioink, tissue engineering, organ regeneration
Citation
Agarwal S, Saha S, Balla VK, Pal A, Barui A and Bodhak S (2020) Current Developments in 3D Bioprinting for Tissue and Organ Regeneration–A Review. Front. Mech. Eng. 6:589171. doi: 10.3389/fmech.2020.589171
Received
30 July 2020
Accepted
22 September 2020
Published
30 October 2020
Volume
6 - 2020
Edited by
Amit Bandyopadhyay, Washington State University, United States
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© 2020 Agarwal, Saha, Balla, Pal, Barui and Bodhak.
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*Correspondence: Subhadip Bodhak, sbodhak@gmail.com, sbodhak@cgcri.res.in
This article was submitted to Digital Manufacturing, a section of the journal Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering
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