Bioinks for Bioprinting Tissues and Organs

Abstract

The use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology greatly impacted the applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Especially, recent developments in the bioprinting field hold promise for the production of viable and functional tissues and organs. 3D bioprinting process involves the use of bioinks in the layer-by-layer production of tissues and has such important roles as providing the shape and preserving the cell function and vitality. Bioinks are biomaterials, of natural or synthetic origin, and they mimic the natural extracellular matrix environment for cells to proliferate and differentiate into to form the new tissue. In this review, 3D bioprinting methods and types of bioinks are discussed in detail, with special emphasis on the milestone applications in the bioprinting field.