Rapid prototyping technologies for tissue regeneration

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine hold a great promise for restoring functional tissues and organs and yet are still limited by the inability to reproduce macro- and microstructures of native tissues and organs. The limitation may be overcome by fully mimicking those structures with computer-aided design and fabrication. To date, rapid prototyping technologies with layer-by-layer construction provide a very powerful tool to fabricate intricate 3D scaffold and tissue constructs with precisely controlled macro- and microfeatures. Moreover, fine features, needed to surpass the oxygen diffusion limitation over 200 µm thickness, can be easily achieved with rapid prototyping technologies compared with traditional scaffold fabrication approaches. Over the last two decades, more than 20 rapid prototyping devices have been developed and used in laboratories for biomedical applications. In this chapter, these devices are categorized into laser-assisted based, extrusion or dispensing-based, and inkjet-based rapid prototyping technologies. Depending on specific technologies and types of materials used, rapid prototyping technologies may be used in engineering hard and soft tissues or even whole organs. These applications were discussed along with their advantages, shortcomings, and future trends.