Bioprinting living organs: The next milestone in organ transplantation?

Abstract

Organ failure remains a harsh problem, leading to millions of patients waiting on the transplantation list. Tissue engineering (TE) organ grafts hold great potential to cover the huge demand for organ transplantation. Combining with the advances in developmental biology, material science, and engineering, the emerging bioprinting technology enables TE grafts to replicate the complexity of human organs, from cell and extracellular matrix (ECM) composites to architecture features. This perspective provides a glimpse of how quickly and profoundly bioprinting can potentially be applied to address problems in TE organ grafts fabrication.