Extrusion-Based Biofabrication in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Extrusion-based bioprinting is a powerful three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology that provides unique opportunities for use in organ fabrication. This technology has grown rapidly during the last decade. Extrusion-based bioprinting provides great versatility in printing various biological compounds or devices, including cells, tissues, organoids, and microfluidic devices that can be applied in basic research, pharmaceutics, drug testing, transplantation, and clinical uses. Extrusion-based bioprinting offers great flexibility in printing wide range of bioinks, including tissue spheroids, cell pellets, microcarriers, decellularized matrix components, and cell-laden hydrogels. Despite these assets, extrusion-based bioprinting has several limitations, such as inadequate control and resolution cell deposition, to create a complex tissue micro-microenvironment, shear stress-induced cell damage, and constraints associated with the current bioink materials.