Additive manufacturing in tissue engineering: A new frontier in
regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical & food industries
Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM), the process of joining materials to make
objects from 3D CAD model data, such as 3D printing, is showing a high
potential to radically disrupt the global consumer market and trigger a
manufacturing revolution in a broad spectrum of applications in many
industry sectors. 3D printing is mostly well-known for
custom-fabrication of industrial prototypes and parts using standard
fabrication materials such as plastics and metals has recently
infiltrated into many industries such as aviation, automobile, dental,
electronic and fashion. The successful implementation of AM in the
healthcare industry has resulted in the development of surgical
equipment, prosthetics, medical devices, and implants. More recently, 3D
printing has been adopted to utilize life cells and gels as printing
materials (bioinks) to create ex vivo and in vitro tissue models. Such
technology heralds new frontiers in medicine. In vitro, cells cannot
arrange themselves in three-dimensional (3D) structure similar to that
in real tissue in vivo. Various tissue engineering techniques were
developed, aiming to develop tools that are able to mimic the living
tissue structure and function. Biofabrication is an innovative technique
that evolved from various fabrication technologies, particularly 3D
printing and bioreactor opening the door for new technology (AM-based
tissue engineering). 3D printing is the process of integration of living
cells with biomaterials forming living and functional three-dimensional
structures. Bioprinting allows controlled deposition of
biomaterials/bioink with maintained cellular viability in 3-dimensional
space to create complex multifaceted tissues with rapid and repeated
process.