3d printing tissue engineering scaffold advantage

#3d printing tissue engineering scaffold advantage manual#

This technology will allow the simultaneous deposition of cells and scaffolding materials in a computer-controlled production, thus allowing the creation of personalized implants. This production is highly time-consuming and economically and logistically unfeasible to achieve clinical application.ģD printing can change this picture by introducing the automation of the manufacturing process in cell-based therapies.

#3d printing tissue engineering scaffold advantage manual#

However, when cell-based therapies are needed, available technologies only allow manual production on a one-by-one basis. Then, this support structure will remain in the body or will disappear by biodegradation.Ĭurrent technologies have managed to successfully obtain cell-free scaffolds showing considerable clinical success in repairing bones, cartilage or skin, to name a few. The scaffold or matrix is supposed to allow the cells to migrate, growth or differentiate, as needed. The aim of tissue engineering is to promote the repair or regeneration of damaged or diseased tissues (i.e., muscles, skin, bones, cartilage, blood vessels and so forth) by means of a combination of two components: a scaffold or matrix (acting as a support structure) and both living cells or biologically active molecules. Of course, the materialization of this idea is not so simple. B: Additive manufacturing of scaffolding structure together with cells suspended in gels. A: Breast image captured by magnetic resonance imaging. AM technologies allow the production of personalized implants. Just a specific body part customized for an individual patient with all the necessary physicochemical, mechanical or degradation properties.įigure 1. The concept is simple: imagine that we could turn the digital image of any kind of implant, tissue or organ into a real body part, no matter what the complexity of its shape, the kind of materials it is made of or its function inside the body. In the field of regenerative medicine, the use of 3D printing could bring about a dramatic difference. For instance, they can produce metal, polymeric or ceramic materials, either from powder, liquid or solid precursors. There are numerous advantages to be found in AM technologies compared with other kinds of manufacturing processes: they are fast, they allow the production of very precise geometries and they can be used with a wide range of materials. g., aerospace and automotive industry employs AM to create lighter structures). Since then, several additive manufacturing techniques have been developed and improved, so that many different fields of product manufacturing have been able to benefit from these technologies (e. This technology is likely to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine in the next few years.Īdditive manufacturing (AM) consists of creating a three-dimensional object layer by layer using computer-aided design (CAD) 2.This technology was first developed in the 80’s in order to facilitate and hasten the creation of prototypes in industry. 1, in which they enlighten us about the amazing prospects that are about to appear in the field of tissue engineering thanks to the introduction of additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing. Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go from pure research to clinical application, a period which is called “from bench to bedside”.Īs a result, we have to face up to the hard truth: technologies available at the moment could represent an absolute revolution in the field of biomedicine, but the crude reality is that they are not being given the necessary support, mainly due to both the limited commercial interest in long-term research investment and also to the complexity of the regulatory aspects in this field.Ī perfect example of this situation was shown in a recently published review article, by Melchels et al. Nevertheless, there is a field in which this immediacy is almost impossible: the medical sector. We like the idea of immediacy and our wishes coincide well with the commercial interests of industry. Nowadays we are getting more and more accustomed to making use of new technologies shortly after they have been developed.