title: Additive manufacturing techniques for the production of tissue engineering constructs.
abstract: 'Additive manufacturing' (AM) refers to a class of manufacturing processes based on the building of a solid object from three-dimensional (3D) model data by joining materials, usually layer upon layer. Among the vast array of techniques developed for the production of tissue-engineering (TE) scaffolds, AM techniques are gaining great interest for their suitability in achieving complex shapes and microstructures with a high degree of automation, good accuracy and reproducibility. In addition, the possibility of rapidly producing tissue-engineered constructs meeting patient's specific requirements, in terms of tissue defect size and geometry as well as autologous biological features, makes them a powerful way of enhancing clinical routine procedures. This paper gives an extensive overview of different AM techniques classes (i.e. stereolithography, selective laser sintering, 3D printing, melt-extrusion-based techniques, solution/slurry extrusion-based techniques, and tissue and organ printing) employed for the development of tissue-engineered constructs made of different materials (i.e. polymeric, ceramic and composite, alone or in combination with bioactive agents), by highlighting their principles and technological solutions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bioactive Polymeric Materials for Biomedical and Environmental Applications (BIOLab), UdR-INSTM, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, San Piero a Grado, (Pi), Italy.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mota
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Puppi
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiellini
authors.forename: Emo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chiellini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds