3D Bio Printing and It’s Applications

Three dimensional (3D) bio printing is the utilization of 3D printing–like

techniques to combine cells, growth factors, and biomaterials to
fabricate biomedical parts that maximally imitate natural tissue
characteristics.[1]
Applications of 3D printing
There are several applications for 3D bio printing in the medical field.
An infant patient with a rare respiratory disease known as
Tracheobronchomalacia (TBM) was given a tracheal splint that was
created with 3D printing.[2] 3D bio printing can be used to reconstruct
tissue from various regions of the body. Patients with end-stage bladder
disease can be treated by using engineered bladder tissues to rebuild the
damaged organ.[3] This technology can also potentially be applied to
bone, skin, cartilage and muscle tissue.[4] Though there are several
examples of tissue engineering using 3D bio printing technology and the
end goal of reconstructing tissue is to reconstruct an entire organ there
has been little success in printing fully functional organs due to
inefficiency of the medical procedures needed in the process.[5] Israeli
researchers constructed a rabbit-sized heart out of human cells in 2019.

3D printing and traditional mechanical engineering:

3D printing is poised to radically change the world you live in. While
the technology has been around since the 80s, only in the last few years,
with technology advances and dropping prices, has it caught the
attention of most people. Today, 3D printing is rapidly evolving with
new players entering the field, more patents expiring, new technologies
(e.g., CLIP and Multi-Jet Fusion) being developed, and supporting
software catching up. It’s estimated that the market will grow to $20
billion by 2025.

References
1. Singh D, Thomas D. Advances in medical polymer technology towards the
panacea of complex 3D tissue and organ manufacture[J]. The American Journal of
Surgery, 2019, 217(4): 807-808.
2. Bracci R, Maccaroni E, Cascinu S. Bioresorbable airway splint created with a
three-dimensional printer[J]. 2013.
3.Atala A, Bauer S B, Soker S, et al. Tissue-engineered autologous bladders for
patients needing cystoplasty[J]. The lancet, 2006, 367(9518): 1241-1246.
4.Hong N, Yang G H, Lee J H, et al. 3D bioprinting and its in vivo applications[J].
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials, 2018,
106(1): 444-459.
5.Sommer A C, Blumenthal E Z. Implementations of 3D printing in
ophthalmology[J]. Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental
Ophthalmology, 2019: 1-8.