Full Text | PDF

Theranostics 2021; 11(16):7948-7969. doi:10.7150/thno.61621 This issue Cite

Review

3D bioprinting in cardiac tissue engineering

Zihan Wang^1,4*, Ling Wang^3*, Ting Li¹, Sitian Liu¹, Baolin Guo⁵, Wenhua Huang^1,2✉, Yaobin Wu^1✉

1. Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Translation of Medical 3D Printing Application, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Biomechanics, Department of Human Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
2. Guangdong Medical Innovation Platform for Translation of 3D Printing Application, Southern Medical University, The third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
3. Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
4. The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
5. Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.

✉ Corresponding authors: Tel.: +86-020-61648086. Fax: +86-020-61648524. E-mail: wuyaobin2018edu.cn, huangwenhua2009com

Abstract

Heart disease is the main cause of death worldwide. Because death of the myocardium is irreversible, it remains a significant clinical challenge to rescue myocardial deficiency. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) is a promising strategy for repairing heart defects and offers platforms for studying cardiac tissue. Numerous achievements have been made in CTE in the past decades based on various advanced engineering approaches. 3D bioprinting has attracted much attention due to its ability to integrate multiple cells within printed scaffolds with complex 3D structures, and many advancements in bioprinted CTE have been reported recently. Herein, we review the recent progress in 3D bioprinting for CTE. After a brief overview of CTE with conventional methods, the current 3D printing strategies are discussed. Bioink formulations based on various biomaterials are introduced, and strategies utilizing composite bioinks are further discussed. Moreover, several applications including heart patches, tissue-engineered cardiac muscle, and other bionic structures created via 3D bioprinting are summarized. Finally, we discuss several crucial challenges and present our perspective on 3D bioprinting techniques in the field of CTE.

Keywords: 3D bioprinting, bioinks, printed biomaterials, cardiac muscle, tissue engineering

Citation styles

©2024 Ivyspring International Publisher. Terms of use