Biofabrication: A Guide to Technology and Terminology

Lorenzo Moroni; Thomas Boland; Jason A Burdick; Carmelo De Maria; Brian Derby; Gabor Forgacs; Jürgen Groll; Qing Li; Jos Malda; Vladimir A Mironov; Carlos Mota; Makoto Nakamura; Wenmiao Shu; Shoji Takeuchi; Tim B F Woodfield; Tao Xu; James J Yoo; Giovanni Vozzi

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.10.015

Biofabrication: A Guide to Technology and Terminology

Trends Biotechnol. 2018 Apr;36(4):384-402. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.10.015. Epub 2017 Nov 11.

Authors

Lorenzo Moroni¹, Thomas Boland², Jason A Burdick³, Carmelo De Maria⁴, Brian Derby⁵, Gabor Forgacs⁶, Jürgen Groll⁷, Qing Li⁸, Jos Malda⁹, Vladimir A Mironov¹⁰, Carlos Mota¹¹, Makoto Nakamura¹², Wenmiao Shu¹³, Shoji Takeuchi¹⁴, Tim B F Woodfield¹⁵, Tao Xu¹⁶, James J Yoo¹⁷, Giovanni Vozzi⁴

Affiliations

¹ MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, Department of Complex Tissue Regeneration, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: l.moroni@maastrichtuniveristy.nl.
² Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.
³ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁴ Research Center 'E. Piaggio' and Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
⁵ School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
⁶ Department of Physics, Biology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA; Modern Meadow Inc., Brooklyn, NY, USA.
⁷ Department of Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
⁸ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
⁹ Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Equine Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ 3D Bioprinting Solutions, Moscow, Russian Federation; Sechenov Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
¹¹ MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, Department of Complex Tissue Regeneration, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
¹² Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan.
¹³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
¹⁴ Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
¹⁵ Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Centre for Bioengineering and Nanomedicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
¹⁷ Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.

PMID: 29137814
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.10.015

Abstract

Biofabrication holds the potential to generate constructs that more closely recapitulate the complexity and heterogeneity of tissues and organs than do currently available regenerative medicine therapies. Such constructs can be applied for tissue regeneration or as in vitro 3D models. Biofabrication is maturing and growing, and scientists with different backgrounds are joining this field, underscoring the need for unity regarding the use of terminology. We therefore believe that there is a compelling need to clarify the relationship between the different concepts, technologies, and descriptions of biofabrication that are often used interchangeably or inconsistently in the current literature. Our objective is to provide a guide to the terminology for different technologies in the field which may serve as a reference for the biofabrication community.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biocompatible Materials*
Humans
Hydrogels / chemistry
Microfluidics
Models, Animal
Polymers / chemistry
Printing, Three-Dimensional
Regenerative Medicine*
Spheroids, Cellular / chemistry
Terminology as Topic*
Tissue Engineering*

Substances

Biocompatible Materials
Hydrogels
Polymers