Organ printing: computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering.

Tissue engineering technology promises to solve the organ transplantation crisis. However, assembly of vascularized 3D soft organs remains a big challenge. Organ printing, which we define as computer-aided, jet-based 3D tissue-engineering of living human organs, offers a possible solution. Organ printing involves three sequential steps: pre-processing or development of "blueprints" for organs; processing or actual organ printing; and postprocessing or organ conditioning and accelerated organ maturation. A cell printer that can print gels, single cells and cell aggregates has been developed. Layer-by-layer sequentially placed and solidified thin layers of a thermo-reversible gel could serve as "printing paper". Combination of an engineering approach with the developmental biology concept of embryonic tissue fluidity enables the creation of a new rapid prototyping 3D organ printing technology, which will dramatically accelerate and optimize tissue and organ assembly.

[1]  J. Folkman.  Tumor angiogenesis: therapeutic implications. , 1971, The New England journal of medicine.

[2]  David Sedmera,et al.  Development of the cardiac pacemaking and conduction system. , 2003, Birth defects research. Part C, Embryo today : reviews.

[3]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Self-Assembly at All Scales , 2002, Science.

[4]  V Mironov,et al.  Anatomy of tissue engineering , 2001, The Anatomical record.

[5]  B. Lowell,et al.  Adipose tissue mass can be regulated through the vasculature , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[6]  V. Mironov,et al.  Regaining chondrocyte phenotype in thermosensitive gel culture , 2001, The Anatomical record.

[7]  F A Auger,et al.  A completely biological tissue‐engineered human blood vessel , 1998, FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

[8]  L G Griffith,et al.  Survival and function of hepatocytes on a novel three-dimensional synthetic biodegradable polymer scaffold with an intrinsic network of channels. , 1998, Annals of surgery.

[9]  G. Forgacs,et al.  Viscoelastic properties of living embryonic tissues: a quantitative study. , 1998, Biophysical journal.

[10]  J. Vacanti,et al.  Tissue engineering: the challenges ahead. , 1999, Scientific American.

[11]  B. A. Sonal Lalan,et al.  Tissue Engineering and Its Potential Impact on Surgery , 2001, World Journal of Surgery.

[12]  R. Landers,et al.  Rapid prototyping of scaffolds derived from thermoreversible hydrogels and tailored for applications in tissue engineering. , 2002, Biomaterials.

[13]  L G Griffith,et al.  Who's got pull around here? Cell organization in development and tissue engineering , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[14]  D. Beysens,et al.  Cell sorting is analogous to phase ordering in fluids. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  Lawrence M. Seiford,et al.  Recent developments in dea : the mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis , 1990 .

[16]  W Schreiner,et al.  A three-dimensional model for arterial tree representation, generated by constrained constructive optimization , 1999, Comput. Biol. Medicine.

[17]  A. Mikos,et al.  Growing new organs. , 1999, Scientific American.

[18]  H. V. Wilson.  On some phenomena of coalescence and regeneration in sponges , 1907 .

[19]  Philip L. Townes,et al.  Directed movements and selective adhesion of embryonic amphibian cells , 1955 .

[20]  B Schmidt-Nielsen.  August Krogh and capillary physiology. , 1994, International journal of microcirculation, clinical and experimental.

[21]  David P. Martin,et al.  Application of Stereolithography for Scaffold Fabrication for Tissue Engineered Heart Valves , 2002, ASAIO journal.

[22]  Anna Gutowska,et al.  Lessons from nature: stimuli-responsive polymers and their biomedical applications. , 2002, Trends in biotechnology.

[23]  M. S. Steinberg,et al.  Adhesion in development: an historical overview. , 1996, Developmental biology.

[24]  E. E. Just,et al.  The biology of the cell surface , 1939 .

[25]  David Sedmera,et al.  The oldest, toughest cells in the heart. , 2003, Novartis Foundation symposium.

[26]  K. Leong,et al.  The design of scaffolds for use in tissue engineering. Part II. Rapid prototyping techniques. , 2002, Tissue engineering.

[27]  Wei Sun,et al.  Recent development on computer aided tissue engineering - a review , 2002, Comput. Methods Programs Biomed..

[28]  I. Zein,et al.  Fused deposition modeling of novel scaffold architectures for tissue engineering applications. , 2002, Biomaterials.