Bioprinting toward organ fabrication: challenges and future trends.
Tissue engineering has been a promising field of research, offering hope for bridging the gap between organ shortage and transplantation needs. However, building three-dimensional (3-D) vascularized organs remains the main technological barrier to be overcome. Organ printing, which is defined as computer-aided additive biofabrication of 3-D cellular tissue constructs, has shed light on advancing this field into a new era. Organ printing takes advantage of rapid prototyping (RP) technology to print cells, biomaterials, and cell-laden biomaterials individually or in tandem, layer by layer, directly creating 3-D tissue-like structures. Here, we overview RP-based bioprinting approaches and discuss the current challenges and trends toward fabricating living organs for transplant in the near future.
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Ibrahim-ozbolat@uiowa.edu
Ibrahim T
IT
Ozbolat
Yin
Y
Yu
D000818:Animals; D062028:Bioprinting; D002417:Cattle; D006801:Humans; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D023822:Tissue Engineering