Abstract
Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing technique to build tissue/organs that mimic the correct spatial arrangement of cells and factors layer-by-layer for fabricating complex in vitro 3D tissue/disease models for drug screening studies or as regenerative medicines for therapeutic purposes. Hydrogels play a key role in bioprinting wherein they are used as bioinks—a combination of hydrogels, cells of interest with or without factors—as a building block for the bioprinting process. This chapter begins with an introduction to bioprinting, followed by three key processes involved in the bioprinting of human tissues: preprinting, printing, and postprinting. In the preprinting process, different types of hydrogel-based cross-linking chemistries, the role of sterilization, and the effects of hydrogels’ viscoelastic properties on the printability and stability of hydrogels will be discussed in detail. Strategies to evaluate the printability and the printed structures were discussed in detail in the printing process. In the postprinting stage, the evaluation of stability and mechanical properties of printed hydrogels, cell viability, and maturation of tissues in a bioreactor are discussed. Various types of hydrogels used in bioprinting are discussed in detail, with a few case studies under each one tabulated. Finally, recent advancements such as DLP, FRESH bioprinting, SLAM technique, SWIFT, and in situ bioprinting are discussed in detail, ending the chapter with future perspectives on the path ahead for 3D bioprinting technologies.