فناوری پرینت سه بعدی زیستی

Printing press invented in 15th century and since then, it has been possible to rapidly replicate and widely spread the information. In past decade, different types of printers have been introduced and advanced remarkably and at the moment three dimensional (3D) printers are widely used in several fields such as arts, food industry, aerospace as well as regenerative medicine and biomedical and tissue engineering. Similar to any other printers, bio-printers are high-throughput tools and are used to produce cell models and tissues for medical doctors, scientists and patients. Lately, 3D printing appeared to be an efficient tool to make biomaterial scaffolds, tissue implant prostheses and physical models of tissues and organs mimicking the complexity of in-vivo tissues. To create 3D structures, 3D printers require appropriate computer software to transfer biomaterials and cells onto appropriate surfaces. Bio-inks, which are required for bio-printing, are biocompatible materials such as cell suspensions, cell-laden hydrogels, micro-carriers, cell/tissue spheroids and decellularized matrix components. There are three different bio-printers including inkjet bio-printing, extrusion bio-printing and light-assisted bio-printing. These have been used in different bio-printing techniques. Despite of their differences, they all aim to keep cells and tissues viable during printing processes in order to create tissue models similar to body tissues. Using imaging techniques such as optical microscopes, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT scan in 3D bio-printing is crucial in order to produce anatomically correct structures with customized size and shape to meet researchers and patients’ need. 3D bio-printing is an innovative achievement in science and it aims to decrease animal use in research, to provide human vital organs, skin, bones, joints and cartilage, etc. for patients in need and to improve the lab-based research. Despite of all advances in 3D bio-printing technologies, there are still several challenges such as limited oxygen and nutrient supply to the innermost parts of the bio-printed structures, resolution of printed models and printing speed, which must be overcome.