Supramolecular hydrogels are used in the 3D printing of high-resolution, multi-material structures. The non-covalent bonds allow the extrusion of the inks into support gels to directly write structures continuously in 3D space. This material system supports the patterning of multiple inks, cells, and void spaces.

Direct 3D Printing of Shear‐Thinning Hydrogels into Self‐Healing Hydrogels

3D printing has the potential to significantly change the field of microfluidics. The ability to fabricate a complete microfluidic device in a single step from a computer model has obvious attractions, but it is the ability to create truly three dimensional structures that will provide new microfluidic capability that is challenging, if not impossible to make with existing approaches. This critical review covers the current state of 3D printing for microfluidics, focusing on the four most frequently used printing approaches: inkjet (i3DP), stereolithography (SLA), two photon polymerisation (2PP) and extrusion printing (focusing on fused deposition modeling). It discusses current achievements and limitations, and opportunities for advancement to reach 3D printing's full potential.

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3D printed microfluidic devices: enablers and barriers

3D bioprinting for biomedical devices and tissue engineering: A review of recent trends and advances.

Bioprinting is an emerging technology with various applications in making functional tissue constructs to replace injured or diseased tissues. It is a relatively new approach that provides high reproducibility and precise control over the fabricated constructs in an automated manner, potentially enabling high-throughput production. During the bioprinting process, a solution of a biomaterial or a mixture of several biomaterials in the hydrogel form, usually encapsulating the desired cell types, termed the bioink, is used for creating tissue constructs. This bioink can be cross-linked or stabilized during or immediately after bioprinting to generate the final shape, structure, and architecture of the designed construct. Bioinks may be made from natural or synthetic biomaterials alone, or a combination of the two as hybrid materials. In certain cases, cell aggregates without any additional biomaterials can also be adopted for use as a bioink for bioprinting processes. An ideal bioink should possess proper mechanical, rheological, and biological properties of the target tissues, which are essential to ensure correct functionality of the bioprinted tissues and organs. In this review, we provide an in-depth discussion of the different bioinks currently employed for bioprinting, and outline some future perspectives in their further development.

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Bioinks for 3D bioprinting: an overview

Direct 3D bioprinting of perfusable vascular constructs using a blend bioink

3D bioprinting shows significant promise for creating complex tissue and organ mimics to solve transplant needs and to provide platforms for drug testing and studying tissue morphogenesis[1][2][3]. However, the lack of 3D printable and cell-compatible bioinks as well as the limited ability to tune bioink material properties are cited as significant inhibitors to the growth of bioprinting[4][5]. Pioneers in the field of tissue engineering and biomaterials have established and validated that changing materials properties such as stiffness[6], bioactive moieties[7][8], and degradation[7][9] significantly impacts cell behavior and tissue formation. Thus, developing novel, versatile and tunable bioink methods that will facilitate advanced material and construct design will have important implications in the field of bioprinting and biofabrication. Versatile bioink synthesis techniques, ones that can be used with many materials, will improve both printability of existing bioinks and most importantly, can add completely new biomaterials to the 3D bioprinting material palette. Furthermore, development of tunable bioink methods will provide additional means to customize mechanical, chemical, physical, and biological properties of printed structures towards creating compositionally and structurally complex structures and functional tissues beyond the rudimentary tissue structures presented thus far.

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Kelly E. Hyland

Papers

A multimaterial bioink method for 3D printing tunable, cell-compatible hydrogels.

Employing PEG crosslinkers to optimize cell viability in gel phase bioinks and tailor post printing mechanical properties