Use of anionic polysaccharides in the development of 3D bioprinting technology

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology is now one of the best ways to generate new biomaterial for potential biomedical applications. Significant progress in this field since two decades ago has pointed the way toward use of natural biopolymers such as polysaccharides. Generally, these biopolymers such as alginate possess specific reactive groups such as carboxylate able to be chemically or enzymatically functionalized to generate very interesting hydrogel structures with biomedical applications in cell generation. This present review gives an overview of the main natural anionic polysaccharides and focuses on the description of the 3D bioprinting concept with the recent development of bioprinting processes using alginate as polysaccharide.